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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23461714">Claws of Truth</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galvanion/pseuds/Galvanion'>Galvanion</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Owl House (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action, Adventure, Aged Up, F/F, Family, Gradual Lumity, Humor, Medium Burn, Prodigy, time skip</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:47:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>43,278</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23461714</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galvanion/pseuds/Galvanion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The past few years have been kind and favorable to Eda. Steal, sell, teach; it's been a wonderful life. But word has gotten out that she knows a secret which could shake the hierarchy of the Boiling Isles. Now she is on the lam and has taken her family with her in an attempt to save herself and the home she loves.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Amity Blight/Luz Noceda</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>161</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Another Day in the Life</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>“Hold it right there, Owl Lady! We have you surrounded! Place your hands apart in the air and come quietly. This doesn’t have to end violently.” A deep masculine voice bellowed. </p><p> </p><p>For most people, being encircled by five witches from the prestigious Emperor’s Coven would have a deer in headlights effect. Not knowing what to do or say, the feeling of dread and regret lumped in the deepest pit of their stomach, and the looming threat of incarceration would be enough to stop almost anyone dead in their tracks.</p><p> </p><p>Almost. </p><p> </p><p>For the Owl Lady, or Eda, as she were also referred to by a few, being surrounded by the authorities was just another day in the life. The feeling of immobility and danger was not so prevalent anymore. It was more like a sparring match for her. There was essentially a lack of repercussions when facing the Emperor’s equerries, one which she certainly loved to take advantage of every time the opportunity presented itself. </p><p> </p><p>“Well boys,” Eda addressed the coven members with a smirk, “it looks like you caught me this time. I’m not sure how I’ll ever be able to get myself out of this one. So I guess I’ll just have to turn myself in...”</p><p> </p><p>Eda raised her arms and bowed her head as the coven members began to close the gap between them and her. They cautiously took one step after another making sure to note any twitch in her arms which could spell trouble.</p><p> </p><p>“Smart plan.” The deep voiced man said. He must be the one in charge of these dunderheads. “And you might just get lucky too. I’ve heard that Lilith has taken a special interest in you, and assuming all goes well at the Conformitorium, you may just have a future within the Emperor’s Coven. Whether you like it or not.” The leader said with a baleful laugh. </p><p> </p><p>“Oh?” Eda questioned. “You know, I’ve heard rumors that the true reason there’s such a hefty reward for me isn’t because I’ve broken the law, but because the Emperor himself wants me to be one of his personal associates. I’ve always passed it off as ridiculous, but if you guys are hearing it too, well, there may be some truth to it after all.” She smirked. </p><p> </p><p>The guard teamed up slightly and grunted, taking another step towards Eda. “Regardless of what you heard, you’ll be coming in for processing first and foremost. Until then, I suggest you remain silent.” The guards drew small circles of various colors in front of them and stuck their hands through them, encasing their wrists. One guard prepared a set of magic-nullifying handcuffs and began closing the gap between himself and Eda. </p><p> </p><p>“As much as I would love to see Lily, I don’t think it’s in the cards today. But pass along my well wishes to her, would ya?” Eda asked with a smug grin. </p><p> </p><p>The guards shifted uncomfortably and before they even realized what was happening, Eda made her move to escape.</p><p> </p><p>Unbeknownst to the poorly trained eyes of the circled up coven members, Eda had drawn a spell circle on the ground with the tip of her boot. She shoved her foot through the hole toe first, plunging her foot into the ground. She drug her foot up and out in an arch from beneath her, dropping her body backwards at the same time. The ground peeled up with her foot like a blanket and she grasped the sides of the dirt, pulling it in close to her like a makeshift cocoon.</p><p> </p><p>The coven members unleashed their handheld assault spells at her. A beautiful and deadly assortment of colors ripped across the small space between their palms and Eda. The cool blues of water spells intertwined with hot orange fires mixing with yellow lightning and other elemental arrays created an explosion rivaling a large land mine. The blast kicked up a dust cloud which covered countless stands and bystanders in the vicinity in a thick layer of dirt and gravel.</p><p> </p><p>Below the cloud, Eda breathed a sigh of relief in knowing that her orange magic shield underneath the ground she pulled over her withstood the force of the blast. She may be the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, but even she has a limit to the power her spells can achieve. Going up against five members of the strongest coven pushed her pretty far, and if she was being honest with herself, they came pretty close to beating her. But once again her self proclaimed title of the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles proved its legitimacy since she was still standing. Figuratively at least, being on her back and all. The next course of action though was to get off her back and the hell out of this mess.</p><p> </p><p>Drawing up a blue spell circle above her head, Eda pulled her spell over her body which gradually turned her invisible as the ring made its way down her slender physique. Say what you would like about the Illusion Coven’s excessive and unnecessary spell casting techniques, but they sure knew how to muster up a great stealth spell.</p><p> </p><p>Knuckles turning white, the leader of the Emperor’s Coven task force cast a large white spell circle above his head which vacuumed up the surrounding dust and debris, expelling it all spiraling into the sky.</p><p> </p><p>Eda rolled backwards and popped onto her feet, her shroud of dust quickly disappearing. She had to get out of there fast before her extra layer of stealth was gone. Flying was out of the question since it would create too much noise, and she was not up for the physical strain tunneling would put her under after taking that blast. There was only one way out of this. </p><p> </p><p>“Don’t let her get away! If we come back empty handed again, it’ll be our heads the Emperor has instead of hers!” The leader’s voice pierced. If nothing else, he had an excellent voice of rage.</p><p> </p><p><em> Oh great. </em> Eda thought. <em> Just what I need. Another beheading. </em> She crouched down and saw where the closest two coven members were positioned. They looked just far enough apart that she could squeeze between them. This was her out. </p><p> </p><p>Eda grabbed her hair that draped behind her and pulled it over her shoulder, flush to her chest. No way was this cosmetic beauty going to get her arrested and possibly forced into enforcing Bellow’s will. Her cloud cover would soon be gone and they may find her footprints moving in the act. She quietly shuffled sideways between the two coven members, narrowly avoiding the touch of one who went to go scratch his nose.</p><p> </p><p><em> These jokers can’t even stand battle ready during a fight. And they’re supposed to be the best? Please. </em> Eda thought condescendingly. </p><p> </p><p>Eda made it outside of the circle the guards created to surround her without drawing any attention to herself. She brushed her footsteps as she walked away and hoisted herself up atop a nearby pillar, watching as the goons below her took notice of their absent target. </p><p> </p><p>“Where is she?” The leader demanded. There was a murmur of responses from the others. </p><p> </p><p>“I didn’t see her leave.” One replied. </p><p> </p><p>“She was just here.” Another answered. </p><p> </p><p>“I hope nobody saw me picking my nose.” A third whispered to himself. </p><p> </p><p>“Agh! Useless, the lot of you!” The leader gestured to the group. </p><p> </p><p><em> Well maybe if he stopped blaming others for their shortcomings, which he definitely shares with them, he might have a better chance of finding me. But then again, men like them never take accountability. </em> Eda smirked, pleased that this hothead was too engulfed in his own rage that he didn’t even bother to stop and think that maybe she just turned invisible. <em> Chumps. </em> Eda leaned back on her hands, crossed her legs and continued to watch her own personal show. It was as though she were an empress and her royal jesters were doing their best to keep her entertained. </p><p> </p><p>They were certainly succeeding. </p><p> </p><p>“Everyone spread out! She couldn’t have gone far and we need her <em> now </em>!” The leader ordered. </p><p> </p><p>“Yes, sir!” The others replied in unison.</p><p> </p><p>After the Emperor’s Coven members split off in different directions looking for her, Eda deemed the coast clear and nullified her invisibility spell. There was a feeling of relief and pride which ran through her after a good chase. Even if the chase was all of thirty seconds long and only displaced her about twenty feet. But seeing those goons confused and panicking was something that she would never get tired of. </p><p> </p><p>“Well Owlbert,” Eda said to her small avian friend, “looks like we win again. I don’t think they’ll ever have the wits to catch us. And let’s be honest; even if they did, their <em> elite prowess </em> couldn’t hold us for long.”</p><p> </p><p>“Hoo!” Owlbert exclaimed. </p><p> </p><p>“I am not being reckless! Please, when have you ever seen any of those guys do something that I couldn’t handle?”</p><p> </p><p>“Hoo hoot, hoot.” </p><p> </p><p>“Yeah well, nobody asked you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Hoot.” </p><p> </p><p>“Psh.” Eda scoffed. “I don’t see where you get the beak to mouth off to me. You’re my palisman after all. Ever since Luz got here a few years ago it seems like you’ve been getting sassier with me.” </p><p> </p><p>Eda stared down Owlbert with friendly disdain. The two of them have been through thick and thin together ever since she had crafted him. Their brushes with death, almost constant run from the long arm of the law, and not to mention a few very close calls with her curse, had forged an inseparable bond between them.</p><p> </p><p>And that bond paved paths to so many different connections between the two. It were as though the two independent entities they were acting on the same prompts, and in the same manner as well. Battles were so much simpler when all you had to do is point your staff at someone and the palisman takes action in the precise manner you would like. Such as Owlbert’s sneak attack on Lilith during her and Eda’s battle at Luz’s first covention. Or how even on the worst of days, they had each other to talk to. Say what was on their mind and have the other to sit, listen, and comfort. It was a beautiful connection that Eda always treasured. </p><p> </p><p>But still, she had felt like something had been a little off for a while now. It was like he was getting antsier every day since Luz came to the Boiling Isles. At first Eda just played it off and attributed it to the fact that she was a human and he was still getting used to her aura. But it’s been almost four years since then and any funny business like that should have gone away by now. So what was up with him?</p><p> </p><p>“Hoo!” Owlbert snapped Eda out of her internal monologue. </p><p> </p><p>“Huh?” Eda blinked mindlessly. </p><p> </p><p>“Hoo.” Owlbert pointed around them. </p><p> </p><p>“Oh, yeah. We probably should get out of here while we still have the chance.” Eda hopped off her perch and brushed her red dress off. She held out her staff towards her faithful companion. “Come on you adorable little miscreant. Let’s go.”</p><p> </p><p>Owlbert flew up and perched on top of Eda’s staff. She screwed him into place and hopped on the staff side-saddle, blasting into the sky, much to the disdain of the pedestrians who got dust knocked all over them. A few choice words and hand gestures were thrown at Eda as she jetted off into the bright and sunny day which awaited her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A New Beginning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>This chapter is a bit longer. Enjoy!</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>-G</strong>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>“Abomination. Rise!” Amity shouted, her hand pushed out in a stance of power. A purple glooping humanoid monster emerged from the ground, its beady red eyes piercing into the soul of Amity’s opponent. Dark purple muck dripped from its extremities as it hoisted itself out of the large circle Amity created on the ground. The creature wailed and roared as it brought itself to an upright position, causing the surrounding area to tremor from the bone rattling reverberations. Amity smirked as the wind blew through her shoulder length green and brown streaked hair. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Amity, is it really necessary to have your abomination roar like that? It just seems so over dramatic.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh come on Willow. You have to exhibit some display of power. Just because your plants can’t roar doesn’t mean you can chastise me about my abomination doing it. And you can’t tell me it isn’t at least a little badass.” Amity crosses her arms. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright,” Willow giggled, “maybe it’s a </span>
  <em>
    <span>little</span>
  </em>
  <span> cool. But I can have my own flair, even if it isn’t roaring. Check this out!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Willow tossed a seed from her pocket which landed in front of the towering abomination looming over her. Her eyes flashed green and she threw her hands up into the air. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In a potent display of magic, vines whipped out of the ground where the seed landed. The thorn covered growth twisted and twirled in a mesmerizing display of greens and browns in front of Willow. The vines cracked like a whip in a terrifying display of dominance against Amity’s creature of the lagoon.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It could use some work.” Amity’s said with a smirk. She uncrossed her arms and took a fighting stance. “Abomination! Attack Willow’s roots!” She pointed towards the vortex of vines, still swirling and snapping in a feisty frenzy. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know Amity, I think you should do a little attacking of your own roots first, </span>
  <em>
    <span>if</span>
  </em>
  <span> you know what I mean!” A voice called from aside the battlefield. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yes, Amity recently began letting her natural brown hair shine through. It was one of the things that made her stand out among others, and more importantly, to herself. For the longest time she felt as though there was something about herself which was left untapped. Something which she was desperately missing to make herself feel whole. A few months ago she decided to bite the bullet and try letting portions of her brown hair grow out. She only had two sections of brown streaking from her hairline back to the tip of her ponytail, but it was those two little lines of chocolate brown which gave her a sense of completion. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now, just because she felt better because of this, did not mean that she wasn’t open to a bit of pure hearted friendly ridicule. And leave it up to the Boiling Isles’ resident human to take the shot almost every time the opportunity presented itself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Luz, I swear! If you keep that up, this abomination will be coming straight for your head!” Amity’s amber eyes locked on Luz’s smiling face from across the homemade battlefield. While there was the slightest twinge of pain when one of her friends would say something about her hair, it never presented itself when Luz would say something. Which was great because she was usually the one to bring it up. But how could Amity just shrug off a playful insult and not push back, even a little? She could never let Luz have the one up. That’s just not how the witch ever worked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oooh</span>
  </em>
  <span>, you’d better watch out, Luz. That’s the glare of a griffin eying its prey...” Gus nudged Luz with his elbow.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ah, Gus. The one who practiced magic with the most mystery and misdirection was, oddly enough, the most open and direct out of everyone. The boy would spill his guts to the world and nobody would be even the slightest bit surprised at the stories, feelings, and life events which would come pouring out. For someone who could magically elude anyone without breaking a sweat, he couldn’t save face to save his life. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And because of that, it was no secret that for a while Gus had crushed hard on Luz. She was all he had ever dreamed of: intelligent, tall, funny, slender, intriguing, brave, beautiful, innovative, and best of all: human! He totally had a shot at a human girlfriend! There was no way that he could just let the opportunity of a lifetime pass him up like that. He had to at least try. Even if trying did result in him having a broken heart along the way. Eventually he thought it best to have her in his life as a friend than to have watched her walk out of it completely. Even though he’d enjoy watching </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> happen. After all, he was a guy. But it had been over a year since then, and his crush on her had subsided. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nah. She’s just playing around. Under that cold, dark exterior shines a light stronger than the strongest light spell ever cast. And I should know, I’m the one who cast it.” She winked at him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Heh heh, yeah. Yeah that was, uh- that was pretty cool.” Gus scratched the back of his head trying to hide his increasingly heated face.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So maybe that crush wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>completely</span>
  </em>
  <span> gone after all.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Woo! Let’s go you two! I wanna see some action!” Luz cried out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ah, there’s nothing better than spending the day watching two teens try to kill each other for the amusement of their peers. And, I brought snacks!” King chirped. The small dog like demon may have a sick sense of quality entertainment, but he was definitely right on this account. Aside from the actually killing each other part. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>King plopped himself between Luz and Gus on the grass outside of the Owl House; a place which has become a sort of safe haven for the group in recent years.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Initially Eda wasn’t completely sold on the idea of having four magically adept teenagers run rampant around her house. For one, she was still on the lam, which here means that those goons in the Emperor’s Coven were out to get her and bring her in for some quality Conformatorium time. Having teens around would probably cause a lot of commotion, what with all the destruction which tends to follow that population group, and would end up bringing the fist of “justice” down upon her evasive body. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And two, there was no way in hell that she would be able to deal with all of the drama that surrounded her. Seriously, it was always something with Luz around. Someone called someone else fat at school today, X and Y just started dating and they are </span>
  <em>
    <span>so</span>
  </em>
  <span> wrong for each other, somebody TP’d the principal’s office while he was having his daily meeting with Miss Lucia in her classroom. It’s insane. And having four times that would have driven her off the brink into full-on insanity.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But even the mightiest, most feared witch on the Boiling Isles had a limit to how much freaking pestering she could withstand from someone. It was like Luz was a master of torture, and having her consistently question Eda about having her friends come over was some kind of cruel punishment played on her by the omnipotent universe.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But, much to her own amazement, she also loved every minute of it. Not that she would ever let a soul know that. So eventually she allowed the others to come over on her watch, and pretended like she did not know about all of the other secret times that they came over anyway. Which may or may not have been a factor in her final decision, considering her house and surrounding land was left largely preserved. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oooh, King! What do you have?” Luz quickly hunched over the demon’s plate of yummy yums. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, I thought I would bring a variety of snacks to the final round; so here we have fermented spider eyes, these are ghost tears, those blue ones are ice charges, and those red ones are demon rods.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uhh...” Luz gulped. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No. They’re not what you’re thinking.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh man, I haven’t had a good ice charge in ages! Let me try one.” Gus grabbed the closest one and popped it into his mouth. “Oh.” He melted as he chewed the snack. “Ohhhh...”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Eugh. Stop it kid, you’re scaring me.” King scooted away from him into Luz. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, it’s just- what are these topped with? They’re so good!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Glowcane.” King answered flatly. He leaned in close to Luz and whispered while Gus was preoccupied with another ice charge. “What’s up with him acting like I gave him some back alley treat?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz hummed in confusion and shrugged her shoulders. Though now she was curious about how something so small could make such a large impact on one person. Well, the snacks were for the three of them so she may as well try one before Gus ends up inhaling the rest of them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A large crash snapped the three onlookers out of their treat based discussion and back to the battlefield where a previously towering purple monster laid on its back with a dislocated arm about twenty feet from where it should be attached. The abomination whined and rolled over and onto its belly. It began pushing itself upward with the arm that was still attached to its body and turned to once again face Willow’s raging vines.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Agh!” Amity stomped her foot in frustration. “That was a cheap shot, Willow!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Just because your abomination wasn’t quick enough to dodge it, doesn’t mean it was cheap, Amity!” Willow hollered back. She knew how Amity worked, especially when it came to her precious abominations. She would go in for the quick kill by overpowering anything which stood in her way. What Amity didn’t count on, however, was another plant mass which Willow had generated a few yards away from the first. When the abomination got tangled up in the first whipping whirlwind, eventually having its legs and torso wrapped up, the second set of plants jumped into action. The vines condensed themselves into an incredibly thin and dense blade which was able to sever the abomination’s arm with relative ease. Afterwards, it was tossed onto its back with relative ease. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well you’re still not going to beat me!” Amity called out. “Now to see how that little maneuver I’ve been working on fairs out in actual combat.” She whispered to herself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity traced a glowing orange circle in front of her and pushed it towards her abomination. It made contact with the creature letting out a loud low frequency hum. The abomination looked down at itself and back to the plant whipping around in front of it. The creature began to glow orange and started regenerating its lost appendage, which kept its previous purple hue. It groaned before grabbing the severed arm next to it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Now,” Amity commanded, “throw and ignite!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her abomination launched its severed arm at the plant, landing a sticky direct hit at the base of the vines. The creature then hurled a scatter shot of orange muck from its other arm, where a few of the balls landed on top of the purple arm. The contact of the two colors caused a massive deafening explosion between Willow and Amity. The entire field, including the three bystanders and the lower portion of Hooty, were rapidly covered in a thick veil of smoke.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh man!” King coughed and hacked. “How am I supposed to see the aftermath with all of this smoke everywhere?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can barely see my own hands!” Gus added. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz stood up and pulled the collar of her shirt over her mouth and nose. “Is everyone okay?” She yelled towards the battlefield. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Silence. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Amity! Willow! Are you two alright?” Luz cried out once again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Still nothing. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You guys, something bad might’ve happened to them! We have to go look.” Luz pulled King up to where he hung face forward over the top of her shoulder. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus cracked his knuckles. “Ow!” He yelped, shaking off the pain. “I got this.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He cast a large spell circle above them which started swirling the surrounding air. The smoke began to funnel up and through his ring, spewing out of the top. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wow. That’s huge.” Luz commented. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m gonna let that one go.” King waived her off. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Even though he was the youngest of his friend group, there was a reason that Gus jumped a few grades. Illusion spells were incredibly handy for stealth and deception, but in the hands of a master, or in Gus’ self-proclaimed case, junior master, they were a powerful force to be reckoned with. Within a matter of seconds the ground was completely cleared of the thick smoke, which was now suspended a few hundred feet above them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz looked back and forth between the two spots her friends were standing in moments ago. Willow was knocked face first onto the ground like a plank, and Amity was lying on her back in a starfish position. Both seemed to be eerily still; most likely unconscious, Luz determined. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Gus, go get Willow. I’ll check on Amity.” Luz said. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Got it.” Gus nodded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus took off towards the vegetation expert, screeching to a halt beside her. He knelt down to get closer to her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Willow! Are you okay?” He questioned, flipping her onto her back. Gus placed his ear over her mouth. She was still breathing; a good sign to say the least. He propped her up into a sitting position with his inner thigh against her back.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She had definitely seen better days. Her hands were cut up, part of her school uniform was ripped in a few spots around the sleeves and shoulder, her glasses were cracked, most likely from her fall face first, and she had some cuts and bruises on her face. While it wasn’t the worst thing he had ever seen, she still needed medical attention. Maybe Eda has some herbal remedies stashed away in the house.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus drew a sky blue circle in front of him and summoned a dashingly handsome clone of himself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Go check the house for some form of herbal remedy for Willow! Ask Hooty where they may be! Hurry!” Gus pointed towards the house, his clone nodded understandingly and took off towards his mission.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Amity!” Luz called out, coming to a halt next to her. She dropped to her knees and carefully pulled her friend upright, as to not hurt her neck. She had a bunch of scrapes on her face, probably from the kicked up debris, and was pretty heavily covered in dirt from head to toe.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>King hopped down and grabbed a lock of Amity’s hair which was sprawled out of her ponytail. “Oh man. She’s going to be washing that out for weeks. Trust me, I’ve been there.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Amity, are you okay?” Luz asked hopefully. She placed her ear to her friend’s mouth and felt the warm, moist breath of the witch against her. It gave her the chills, the whole hair raised and goosebumps chills, but they weren’t exactly bad chills. In fact, given the circumstances, they were certainly good chills. Possibly for more than just one reason. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Where did that come from?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Luz asked herself. She shook her head. It didn’t matter right now. What mattered was right in front of her, and as fate would have it, what was right in front of her began to stir.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity muttered something incomprehensible and began to turn her head towards Luz. She slowly cracked an eye open, shortly followed by her other eye. Her eyelids closed and opened a few times before she became lucid enough to speak. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Mmm.” Amity groaned. “Luz? What happened? Where are we?” She pushed her hands against the ground and scooted back a little for a better position. She grabbed her head and moaned again. “God my head is killing me. Seriously, what happened?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, I think your plan to beat Willow kind of backfired. And forward fired. And side fired too...” Luz let a small smile grace her lips.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh great, so that actually happened. Ugh. That was one hell of an explosion. I definitely didn’t think it would be that strong. Wonder why it was...” Amity trailed off, beginning to run through what could have occurred. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity was always one to act with caution. Always taking the proper steps to ensure the safety of herself and of those around her. This was the way for someone who was going to eventually claim the title of the most powerful witch, because if a powerful spell were to go astray, then it may be a mistake she would never be able to undo. Throughout her extensive testing of the abomination’s combustible properties, Amity had witnessed countless explosions occur with varying degrees of power. However, this was on a whole new level for some reason. And right now she just couldn’t figure out what the reason behind that was.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t matter why it happened right now. All that matters is that you’re okay.” Luz gave a reassuring smile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah... Thanks.” Amity answered, true sincerity evident in her voice. “Hold on though. How is everyone else?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz was so preoccupied with checking up on Amity that she almost forgot about Willow! What kind of friend does that? She whipped her head around and saw Gus down on one knee with Willow’s back against it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shorty sent a clone inside the Owl House. Your friend doesn’t look like she’s moving, so I bet it was for some kind of medicine. Ugh. I’d better go over and make sure he doesn’t get the wrong thing. Or any of </span>
  <em>
    <span>my</span>
  </em>
  <span> things.” King’s eyes narrowed before he bolted off into the house after the clone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With King, you could just tell that sometimes his heart is bigger than his ego. For instance, just then he went to help the, most likely clueless, Gus clone find medicine for his passed out friend. King only tacked that last part about his stuff to build up his emotional barrier. While he was certainly the king of demons, underneath it all, he was also the king of softies. But that was something that was strictly for only Eda and Luz to know. To everyone else, he remained a tiny tyrant.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She’s not moving?” Amity’s voice dripped with guilt equivalent to what her face showed in horror. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We need to go check on her.” Luz stood up and held her hand towards Amity, who quickly accepted and pulled herself upward. Amity stumbled a bit as she stood flat on her feet. She swung her arm over Luz’s shoulder and Luz wrapped her arm around Amity’s waist. They gradually hobbled their way over to where Gus had Willow sitting upright.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Come on, come on.” Gus whispered to himself. His eyes darted between Willow and the front door of the Owl House, panic most evident.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How is she?” Luz asked as Amity unwrapped herself, slightly swaying. Amity’s mind was still fuzzy and her head was still pounding, but at least she was awake. That was more than she could say for her childhood best friend. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She’s out cold. I sent a clone of myself to look for something in the house that could help her.” Gus answered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah we saw him run in. King went to go help him out so he didn’t grab anything that might make her worse. Even though he’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>still</span>
  </em>
  <span> not the most reliant on that front.” Luz whispered the last part to herself. While he had good intentions, King did not always know exactly what went on in Eda’s house. Case and point, when he tried to give her some of Eda’s curse dampening potion saying it’s what gave Eda the power to claim her ‘Most Powerful Witch in the Boiling Isles’ title. His intentions were good, but he was definitely lacking information, which was exactly what was making Luz uncomfortable right now. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Look, she’s just unconscious now, right? She’s still breathing and everything?” Luz asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus nodded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay, great! So let’s just take her to a doctor and they can help her.” Luz smiled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No way, Luz! If they figure out that we were having senior sparring matches outside of designated property, we’ll get in </span>
  <em>
    <span>so</span>
  </em>
  <span> much trouble!” Gus nervously responded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>While denying care to Willow was morally questionable, Gus had long term repercussions in mind. About two years ago there was an incident within the senior class at Hexside. Rumor had it that two of the stronger, advanced students got into a disagreement in the middle of merchant avenue. After a few minutes, instead of attempting a diplomatic approach to the situation, they opted for a more hands on solution. Following a few contained blows, their little conflict blossomed into a beautiful mushroom cloud, which engulfed a few square blocks in dirt and debris. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After the dust settled, both figuratively and literally, it was noted that there were a few individuals who took more of a beating than either of the combatants. In fact, they were rushed to a nearby medical center for treatment of traumatic,life threatening wounds. After the Emperor’s Coven finished their incident report, it was found that three dozen individuals were physically harmed, ranging from cuts and bruises to three who had actually perished in the crossfire. As a result, all forms of sparring outside of designated zones were deemed illegal in Bonesborough and its surrounding areas.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Just take her inside and let’s wait for Eda.” Amity spoke up. “We can watch her to make sure that she remains stable, and I’m sure once she gets back she’ll have something to help Willow. I mean, she’s been on the run from the law for how many years now? She’s got to have some kind of medicine to help. Plus, at that point, we’re getting help from the potions master herself.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s... A pretty good idea. Yeah, actually-“ Luz pursed her lips together, “that’s a great plan. Okay, you still need help walking, Amity?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity slightly shook her head back and forth. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay, good. Gus.” Luz called, drawing his attention. “Help me move her to the house.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus went between Willow’s feet, facing away from her, and grabbed her by the calfs. At the same time Luz grabbed her under her shoulders.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay.” Luz said. “Pick her up on three. One. Two. Three!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz and Gus hoisted Willow up and began walking towards the front entrance of the house with Amity close in tow. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hooty! Open up!” Luz called to the house guardian. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’s the password? Hoot hoot.” He called back in that horrific high voice. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s open up before I drop kick you again!” Amity barked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay! Geeze. I liked it better when she wasn’t around.” Hooty griped the last part to himself.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What was that?” Amity pushed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nothing!” The house owl frightenedly cried. Hooty opened up his mouth, allowing the group to enter. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>While she had certainly become more approachable and less condescending over the years, there were still a few times where Amity was less than a perfect witch. Last semester she had taken an interest in some human attack and defense techniques after seeing Luz reenact something from a show. Luz told her it was called a ‘drop kick’ because you literally kick while you drop to the ground.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Luz and Amity were messing around trying the drop kick and some other techniques outside of the Owl House when Hooty called out to them.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Hey! What’re you two doing over there?” The house owl called to Luz and Amity. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Luz had just finished showing Amity what a full nelson hold was; Luz was atop Amity’s back and had her arms wrapped under and together behind her head while the witch was face down on the ground. Things may have gotten little out of hand. They both stopped in their tracks and looked over to Hooty. Luz let Amity go and they both pushed themselves off the ground.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Well, I’m teaching Amity some attack and self defense forms that we use in the human realm.” Luz answered wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“For a human technique it’s actually pretty good. Plus it’s fun to watch your opponent struggle against you, only to no avail.” Amity smirked.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Oh. Well it </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>looked</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span> like you were doing a lot more than fighting, hoot hoot.” Hooty winked at them. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Luz and Amity shoot each other quick glances, turning red at their eye contact. When their gaze returned to Hooty their eyes narrowed in unison, nonverbal death threats heavy in the air.. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“And what exactly is </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>that</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span> supposed to mean?” They questioned simultaneously, taking another quick glance at each other. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Well, I was told when two owls love each other </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>very</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span> much...”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I’d stop right there if I were you.” Amity cut in. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You just don’t want to hear the truth, hoot hoot.” </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I’m warning you, house demon.” Amity gritted her teeth. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You lo-“</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hooty was not able to even say two words before Amity had jumped into the air and slammed her feet into Hooty with enough force to take down a griffin. Hooty caved in and flew across the living room, smashing into the opposite side and taking down a few glass bottles with him. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Hey!” Eda yelled from her spot on the couch, dropping a mug from her hands. She spilled apple blood all over her sweater and the floor underneath her. “What the hell was that about?” The volume of her voice increased with every word. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Amity’s eyes widened and her demeanor shrunk making her feel like one of those ghastly popping collector dolls. She had never lost it like that before, and she had been in plenty of aggravating situations before. So why now? Not that she really got a chance to think about why when an A-list witch was lording over her expecting an answer as to why her door was broken and there were now stains all over her favorite sweater. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Uh... I- I um...” Amity stammered, desperately trying to find an explanation in which she did not end up on the receiving end of a torture spell.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You see, it’s a funny story, Eda-“ Luz cut in. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Save it, kid. I want to hear from the Blight girl.” Eda crossed her arms and tapped her foot. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Flowers...” Hooty barely spit out. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Eda glanced back at the broken door, among other trashed pieces of her house, and returned her eyes to Amity who was staring at the floor like it was going to magically get her out of the situation she was in. Eda let out a sigh and ran her fingers back through her hair. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You’re both going to clean up my living room and repair Hooty. Meanwhile, I’m going to go downstairs and hope that I have some potions to draw this out of my shirt. Got it?” Eda asked, considerably nicer than either of the teens were expecting. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Got it.” They replied immediately in unison. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Eda walked out and closed the door behind her. Both girls let out breaths they were holding once they heard Eda.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Whew. That was a close one.” Luz commented. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Yeah... I thought I was going to be tortured and killed there for a second.” Amity replied, doing her best to shake off the nerves that were still running rampant through her body.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Nah. Eda may sound like your worst nightmare, but she’s just a huge cuddly owl on the inside.” Luz smiled, gripping herself in a tight bear hug. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Amity giggled at her friend’s antics before looking back to the damage she caused. “We should probably clean this up, before she decides to become a blood thirsty monster and rip us apart limb from limb.” Amity grinned. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Agreed. You grab Hooty and I’ll get the broom.” Luz walked off in the direction of the kitchen. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“My head hurts. Somebody help me, hoot hoot...” And as fast as Amity’s smile came, it left. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz and Gus set Willow down on the couch and propped her up using a few pillows. The plant prodigy groaned and mumbled something incoherent, drawing the attention of the three other Hexside students in the room. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You guys think she’ll be okay?” Gus asked with hope fully apparent in his voice.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sure she’ll be okay, Gus.” Luz answered softly. Truth be told, she had never had first hand experience in dealing with a concussion. Back when she was in school on Earth, there were plenty of students getting concussions. Mostly the football and hockey kids, but still. She always heard them recovering after a few weeks and going right back at it only to get hit in the head again and end up right back where they started. That was definitely not good for their mental health. But they always seemed alright afterwards, so hopefully Willow would recover in the same manner.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No you glorified puppet! If she takes one sip of that we might as well toss her in a hole!” Kings authoritative voice rang out from upstairs. There was some banging and clatter following his command which ended in scraping along the floor. “Aha!” He exclaimed, a thud following suit. “Now let’s get this to-“ King stopped as he and Gus’ illusion entered the room. “-here. Let’s get this here.” He stated, fooling no one that he was surprised to see everyone huddled around the couch. He held out the small spherical container with swishing icy blue liquid inside to Luz. “Here. Give her this.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thanks King.” Luz smiled at the cute, yet fearsome, demon she became so close to. It seemed like only yesterday she was drug into this upside down world to meet the mystic, creepy creatures she began to call family. Now she could rely on them for anything and everything, and hopefully, they feel the same way about her. But deep down she was certain they did. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After a few moments of mental deliberation on whether or not to actually wait for Eda, Luz cocked Willow’s head up and opened her mouth. After all, King had done a lot of growing up since almost giving Luz Eda’s curse potion. Luz gently poured the potion down her friend’s throat making sure that she swallowed every last drop. Not a soul dared to say anything as the air grew heavier around them as each moment passed. Seconds turned into minutes as the group waited eagerly to see if the potion would actually do what they wanted it to do.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After what seemed like an eternity, Willow’s head budged and turned the slightest bit towards her side. Her lips began to tremble and her eyes tightened and relaxed a few times. The young witch groaned as her eyes began to flutter open. Her dark green irises slowly scanned the room and over her three friends looking down on her, all filled to the brim with relief and excitement. Some more excited than others.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m glad you’re okay, Willow!” Gus almost cheered. “I mean- we’re glad you’re okay.” He looked up to Amity and Luz. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ugh.” Willow moaned, grabbing the sides of her head. “I wouldn’t say okay. More like, stable? My head is </span>
  <em>
    <span>killing</span>
  </em>
  <span> me.” She squeezed her eyes closed in a desperate attempt to keep any light out, and shifted her hands down to cover up the quiet, yet painful, sounds emanating all around her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Here, let me go grab you something for that.” Luz jumped to her friend’s aid by running up to her room. She rummaged around in one of her drawers before finding a small amber vial with some red coated tablets inside. Those trips back to see her mom definitely did come in handy. She took the vial and her water bottle atop her dresser and ran back to Willow’s side. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Here, take these. They’ll help ease the pain.” Luz held out three of the tablets and her water bottle. Willow graciously accepted and popped the tabs, washing them down with the water. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My head is still pounding.” Willow whispered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, they take a little bit to start working but you’ll be feeling better soon. I promise.” Luz smiled, making sure not to be too loud. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Care to spare a few more of those?” Amity asked from her newfound spot on the floor. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh my gosh! Amity I’m so sorry. Of course you can have some.” Luz quickly dumped three more pills out of her vial and handed them and her water bottle to her green-brown haired friend. Amity smiled and was thankful for the Earth medicine. Willow, on the other hand, was not so thankful in the moment, seeing as she rolled over and desperately tried to push her hands farther into her ears.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Luz, could you be quiet?” Gus hushed, a little irked that Luz’s voice boomed throughout the room. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Agh! Sorry.” The Latina sheepishly answered, this time in a much lower and softer tone. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright, if everyone is well and good here, I’m going to go and take a power nap for the next few hours.” King brushed his paws off and began to waltz away. “If you need me I’ll be in my chambers. But do me a favor; don’t need me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus and Amity eyed Luz, giving her confused expressions. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Literally anywhere he sleeps is designated his ‘chambers’.” Luz air quoted. She looked back to Willow who was still trying to place herself into a dark, makeshift anechoic chamber. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz frowned. “You guys can go home if you’d like. Get cleaned up, or whatever. I’m sure it’s going to be a while before she feels well enough to do something with us. I can take care of her for now.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No way.” Gus immediately chimed in. “I’m  not going anywhere until she feels better.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz pursed her lips together. While she understood where her friends were coming from, not wanting to leave without knowing their friend is better, it was in Willow’s best interest to have as little stimulation as possible. This included two people that she cared for dearly not being around, just for a little bit. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah I’m with him on this.” Amity stated coolly. “But I get what you’re saying, so I’m just going to go and take a nice long nap on the chair. If you need me, wait till I wake up.” With that the young witch strode over to the lone chair in the living room and planted herself firmly down. She stretched the reckoning chair back, kicking her feet up in the process and stifled a yawn. With that, she placed her arm over her eyes and did her best to drift soundly into slumber. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately for her, the door slammed open just as she got comfortable, making her and Willow both jump from their relaxed states. Eda stormed in with a not so subtle glint of murder in her eyes. She threw the door closed and gave each of her onlookers the dirtiest stink eye ever mustered up in the history of the Boiling Isles. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll give you all three seconds to tell me who in their right damn mind blew smoke all above my house!” Eda demanded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus let a small squeak slip. Amity puckered her lips and looked everywhere expect where Eda stood. Luz’s mouth opens the slightest bit but nothing came out. And Willow burrowed herself back into her isolation hole.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda was furious with the kids. Usually they have their fun, mess around, maybe someone gets a scrape, bruise, or gash, but it’s typically no big deal. After all, who would know fun better than the founder and leader of the Bad Girl Coven? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But this was different. In all those other instances she could usually just fix any weird thing that happened to them or send them off to a doctor with a note saying there was a supervised training accident. After all, training and sparring are basically the same thing. It’s dumb to try and differentiate them. However, now there was the problem of having a massive signal for everyone, namely the Emperor’s Coven, to question in the form of a mushroom cloud. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Someone was certainly going to come and check on the origin of a smoke cloud the size of Bonesborough. And eventually word will find its way to law enforcement, assuming they do not already know, and they’ll be coming with bells on. They will find her house, her family, and her. It doesn’t matter that she got rid of that cloud the second she saw it. It was too late.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright. Out. All three of you.” Eda pointed at Gus, Willow and Amity. “Go back to your homes and don’t come back till I send the all clear with Luz.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But Miss Eda!” Gus answered defiantly. “Willow is in incredible pain. She can’t go anywhere in her condition.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Incredible pain that gets worse when people are loud.” Amity seethed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus contorted his face and smacked his palm to his face.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t matter.” Eda interjected. “What matters is that you all get home and you do it now.” The foxy witch was beginning to lose her patience with these kids. Who knew that teenagers were so resistant to authority figures? Even the cool ones! </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Willow turned a little and spoke up softly. “Guys, it’s okay. I’m starting to feel a little better anyway. Let’s just head out.” She winced in pain attempting to stand up. Luz tried to stabilize her but Willow waived her off. “I’m fine.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good. Listen to your friend.” Eda said. She looked at Willow, agony stricken across her face, and felt a twinge of guilt for kicking her out in her condition. She was in pain after all. And it doesn’t matter what was happening, if she can help one of Luz’s friends, she will. It’s just the kind of witch Eda was; at least deep down towards those she considered family, not that she would ever say that out loud. And for as much as these kids have been over to her house in the past few years, they were family in her eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda sighed. “Here, so you don’t have to leave in too much pain.” She cast a red spell circle in front of Willow’s face and gently pushed it so her head was engulfed in a transparent bubble. A small flash of light appeared and disappeared within a few moments. Willow grabbed her head with radiating enthusiasm and a smile as big as the Boiling Isles themselves. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t hurt anymore! Thank you so much Miss Eda!” Willow beamed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah yeah. Don’t get all sappy on me, kid.” Eda smirked. “Now all of you, up and out.” Eda pointed towards the door. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wait. What about Amity?” Luz asked. “Can’t you do the same thing for her?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Luz, I’m fine.” Amity dismissed her. In a sense, she was indeed fine. She could move under her own power and she did not have any crippling pain to the point where even the slightest muscle spasm would cause her to scream in pain. But everything ached. It was not the first time she had to deal with pain and put on a face to pretend nothing was bothering her. In fact, that was most of her life thus far. To be the best you had to act like the best, and the best never ran into anything which could slow them down. Including their own internal struggles, be it physical or mental.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fine isn’t good enough.” Eda countered. She cast another spell and replicated what she had just done to Willow. Amity’s facial expression change alone was enough to reassure Eda that the young Blight girl definitely needed that. But now that everyone was feeling better, it was time to kick them out. Hopefully no Emperor’s Coven members would come anyway, but better safe than sorry at this point. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay.” Eda clapped her hands together. She once again pointed towards the front door. “Everybody out. Now.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now that the group seemed well enough individually, they were okay with the speedy exit. Gus shot a glance at Willow before he headed for the front door. Willow and Amity followed suit after saying quick goodbyes to their friend and hosts.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda shut the door behind them and peeked out the window, watching the three witches leave. It’s tough to kick some people out, but there was not a doubt in her mind that she was doing the right thing. She turned around and scanned the room, eyeing King as he walked back in. . </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright you two, I’ll be back in a sec. Make sure you’re both packed and ready to go on a moment’s notice.” Eda walked into the kitchen and opened the door to the basement. Usually the thought of coming down here was exciting, considering it was the place where she brewed up all of her potions to use and sell. Getting lost in her own world of mixing and creating some of the elixirs that other witches could only ever dream of concocting. If she were being honest with herself, had she not been so hell bent against covens, she would most likely be the head of the Potions Coven. After all, nobody could brew like her, in more ways than one.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda cracked her knuckles as she stepped onto the floor of her potions room. She took a long whiff of the wonderful smoky fragrance which encompassed the whole area. It was the little things that made the place feel like home. The smell, just enough lighting to give an ambient atmosphere, the upholstered reclining chair which she used during her long brew nights, and especially the large half circle desk surrounding a fire pit where she worked her magic. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>However, there were pressing matters which needed attending to, and they were majorly unrelated to potions. Eda opened a rickety old closet at the far end of the room which swung out with a lingering squeak. Inside were a few boxes of empty bottles, some old brewing books, and a large duffel bag. She grabbed the bag from the top shelf and shut the doors as the lights in the basement flickered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay, let’s make sure you’re got everything in here.” Eda muttered to herself. “Clothes, snails, Essential Brews, some benzos, potions, a few pictures... Yeah, that’ll do it. Oh, one last thing...” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda tore out a piece of parchment from an unused book on her desk and a quill from its holster and began writing a note. She scribbled down the last few words before she was so rudely interrupted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was a loud crash which came from above her. Muffled voices faded in and out as Eda grabbed her bag and headed to where the stairs were. A quick creek followed by a few latches being thrown came from atop the steps. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay, come on.” Eda heard King whisper. Footsteps and tiny paw pats emanated from the stairwell and in a moment's notice Luz and King were in front of Eda. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz has a school backpack secured tightly against her black hoodie. She sported a pair of dark green camouflage pants and black hiking boots to match. Her hair was a bit frazzled, but considering the circumstances it was the least of their worries. Her determined features bobbed up and down as she nodded to Eda.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The trio quickly and quietly made their way over towards the end of the room opposite the staircase. Eda drew a brown spell circle on the wall and placed her hand flat in the center of it. With a twist of her wrist, she dislodged a few bricks next to her. She pushed the foot open and waived King and Luz to go through. After they ducked in the tunnel, Eda followed suit and closed the small opening behind them, sealing it with a satisfying hitch. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>On the other side of the wall was a tunnel, long and narrow. The only light emanated from a minuscule point at the far end of the corridor, what seemed to be hundreds of yards away. The damp floor covered the soles of everyone’s shoes, and paws, and the odor of stale jungle was ever so potent. It was like something out of an apocalyptic metropolitan city, something which would be super cool if not for the danger which lurked behind the trio. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda cast another spell circle in the air, this time one of a vibrant yellow hue. A hand sized orb of light appeared in her hand, brightening up the dark and dingy tunnel. “Go, go!” Eda commanded in a soft, yet forceful, whisper. She waived her free hand in the direction out of the tunnel. Luz and King spun around and started moving outward. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t see anyone down here, sir!” A muffled voice called out from behind the secret door which was closed mere moments before. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shit. Go back upstairs and continue the sweep of the house! We can’t let our discovery of her home go to waste. You! Continue searching this area.” An authoritative voice commanded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After all of these years on the run, she had finally been caught. Sort of. Now they knew where she lived, and the whole place would be cut off in a matter of hours. All of the memorabilia she had accumulated over the years would be gone; reduced to simply memories. It would be confiscated just as King’s crown was the first day they had met Luz. Only this time, she doubted one human would be able to waltz in and retrieve everything which would be taken from her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The laughs her, King and Luz shared; the fun they had playing games, planning pranks, and roasting each other; the fights that broke out when one of them inevitably took what they were doing too seriously, they would be no more. Those were what was going to be hardest to leave behind. But it was for their own protection. And if these clowns were here for the reason she thought they were, then there was no way any of them would get off with a slap on the wrists or community service. No. Their fates would be worse than what any sane person, witch or demon could ever come up with. They had to leave, and they had to do it now. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This was goodbye to the Owl House.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <strong>LazuliRose: Thank you so much! I will certainly be continuing this plot.</strong>
</p><p>
  <b>allenVth: There will definitely be more chapters! I hope to showcase some more of Eda's battle strategies soon.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>RecordBreaker: &lt;3</b>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Investigation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>CoT Chapter 3:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>A/N: I’m back! I hope you’re all doing well, staying safe and healthy. Apologies for such a long hiatus, but life sometimes gets in the way. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy chapter 3!</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Warning: this chapter contains swears.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What the hell was that about?” Amity finally asked minutes into their walk, frustrated at Eda’s strange demand to have the three of them leave out of the blue. The Owl Lady was typically laid back and didn’t really care about when or for how long the three witches were in her house, so long as nothing happened to any of her stuff. She actually welcomed the company at times and would even referee their sparring matches, making sure nothing got too out of hand. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kind of like it did earlier.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Regardless, it wasn’t the first time something like that happened, so what was the big deal now? If she had a stick up her ass she would typically just kick them outside if they were in the house. But this time she actually made them leave and go home. And it was in such a strange way too. Something was off, and Amity was not the only one of the three who was bothered by it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m not sure.” Willow replied. “I think this was the first time she ever kicked me out. Usually she’ll just give us chores if something goes wrong.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah she never kicked me out either. Think it was because you got hurt?” Gus questioned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I doubt it.” Willow answered honestly. “What was weird too was that Luz didn’t say anything either. I feel like that’d be something she’d at least address as soon as it came up. But she didn’t do anything!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>While Luz was pretty compliant with what Eda requested, sometimes demanded, she always spoke up when something was on her mind. That included excited screeches in response to something fun or adventurous, grumbling or murmuring for mundane activities, or straight up defiance regarding something opposite to her moral compass. But there was nothing. Not a peep. It was so strange, and again, the three witches could not make heads or tails of the situation.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Maybe they had something planned for tonight?” Gus asked, a hint of desperation hinging on his question. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Doubt it.” Amity replied coldly. “She would’ve told us.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>She would have, right?</span>
  </em>
  <span> She asked herself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Luz had first come to the Boiling Isles, Amity had only thought of her as an inconvenience to herself and her studies. A roadblock on the journey to taking over Lilith’s position as head of the Emperor’s Coven. She had shown up at the worst possible times, took part in stripping her top student status, and gotten her into uncalled for trouble. Even though Amity may have gone a bit overboard in that instance, but that was about four years ago. She had developed not only on a physical level, but on mental and emotional level too. And they say that if you don’t cringe up at your past self then you have not really matured as an individual, so there was certainly some change in her and her attitudes toward others, especially Luz. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ever since that incident at the library a few years ago, Amity had begun to tolerate Luz, mostly on the grounds that she had initially misjudged her and wanted to give her a second chance. The turning point being when Luz had given her the newest Azura book at the time, one that had eluded her grasp for what felt like an eternity, even though she had no obligation to do so. It was just the kind of person that Luz was. And that person was definitely someone worth sacrificing some academic time to build a friendship with. And here they were four years later, closer than she ever would have imagined. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Or so she thought. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well things do come up, Amity. And I’m sure that when you live with Eda, those things come up a lot faster than they normally would.” Willow said. She always one to see the positive aspects in life. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you ever see the bad in anyone? Like, ever?” Amity asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well think of it this way; our best friend lives with one of the Boiling Isle’s most wanted criminals. Her list of transgressions is rivaled by no one, and nobody in their right mind would dare to even think of looking at her the wrong way. I believe that most of the inhabitants on the Isles who know her, or at least know of her, would place her in categories such as: unlawful, unstable, unpredictable, uncaring, unloving-“</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Does this have a point?” Amity interjected. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, it does.” Willow retorted, a little irked that her friend deliberately cut her off. “My point is that while 99 percent of the residents on the Boiling Isles see Eda as this unholy manifestation of evil in its raw form, we know different. We know that while she certainly maintains a tough outer facade, she’s actually a sweet and caring person on the inside.” Willow smiled softly to herself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, just don’t tell her that.” Gus snickered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity and Willow rolled their eyes, Willow a bit more playfully than her grouchy companion. “Amity,” Willow continued, “my point is that there are more than just one point of view to look at something. Sure it’s possible that Luz is blowing us off for something with Eda, but who’s to say that she sees it like that? Maybe she’s going off to help her as part of her agreement with Eda to stay under her roof. Or maybe something dire happened to someone they know and they have to go to them right away. Just because she didn’t give what </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> would consider a good reason for having us kicked out, doesn’t mean it’s not a good reason to her. I mean, we’ve known her for years now. Wouldn’t you think that doing something like that would be a bit out of character for her?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As annoyed as she was, Amity had to admit that the prospect of Luz having a good reason for letting them get kicked out of the house, and just not conveying it very well, did sound a lot more comforting than her own alternative. A lot more like Luz too. But even if that was the case, and she was becoming more hopeful that it was, there was still something off about the whole ordeal. Eda kicking them out, Luz not objecting; she had to get to the bottom of this. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, it would be. But something’s wrong. I can feel it. We need to go back to Eda’s house and check on them.” Amity decided. She stopped dead in her tracks and pivoted 180 degrees. Without missing a beat she began walking back towards where they had just come from. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Amity, I don’t think this is a good idea. They obviously wanted us to leave for the time being, and I’m sure that once they’re done with, well, whatever it is they’re doing, Luz will give us a call or come get us.” Willow pleaded, grabbing Amity by the forearm. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I think we should at least check.” Gus added, starting Amity.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>To be completely honest, she actually forgot he was even with them. “Uh, thanks Gus.” Amity hesitantly spoke. She looked down at her arm, which was still encased by Willow’s surprisingly strong grasp, and frowned. In one swift motion, Amity slid her hand free from Willow and continued walking back to The Owl House. She was not going to be stopped until some answers were revealed, and for Luz and Eda’s sake, they had better be good ones.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Willow sighed. “Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.” She muttered to herself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After a few minutes of walking, the top of the house came back into view. Although now there were some extra visitors hanging around. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hold on.” Gus said. “Are those Emperor’s Coven members? What’re they doing here?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Get down!” Amity hushed, pushing the other two behind a nearby shrub. She peered around the side, taking extra precautions as to not be detected by the coven members. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There were two members stationed outside who appeared to be questioning Hooty, and by the looks of it he was not having a fun time. His mouth was agape for half the time, and when it wasn’t, his head was whipping around in a desperate attempt to identify something else to distract himself or the coven members. One coven member stomped his foot on the ground and aggressively pointed at the poor owl, who seemed to quickly retract in a distraught manner. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yeah, this was an interrogation.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity couldn’t believe it. In all of the years that she had been coming here, never once had she thought that the Emperor’s Coven would actually find the place. Countless times when she, Gus and Willow had been over, Eda had warned them not to share the location of her house with anyone. No exceptions. And while Eda seemed satisfied with Willow and Gus’ knowledge on the subject, and their word to not utter a peep, she always seemed a little on edge about Amity knowing. Amity may have been a little more distant than her friends, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t trustworthy. Quite the opposite actually. Her mind was like a steel vault for secrets. One that would open for no one other than the supplier. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But alas, her opinions of herself, while objectively true, remained a subjective matter in the eyes of others. Namely, the Owl Lady. But that had not stopped Amity from wanting to prove to Eda that she could be trusted with information just as much, if not more so, than anyone else. It was impossible that she would ever get to the level of intimacy shared between Eda and Luz, almost like a mother/daughter relationship, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t try for something like niece.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So she had tried for years to get Eda to give up some kind of small secret just so that she could keep it locked up in her vault of knowledge and prove herself.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>One day Amity’s luck began to turn for the better. Eda had accidentally let it slip that she was going to go to the Night Market to acquire some “exotic” potion ingredients. She had no idea that Amity was just out of sight but within earshot of her conversation with Luz. The exotic ingredient in this instance referred to scales of the near extinct Allosaur, which can only be found in a fairly remote location a few days journey south of Bonesborough. Incredibly rare and highly illegal, it was just the sort of dirty details that she had been looking for.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda was not happy with herself in the slightest for letting her nighttime run slip in front of “the Blight girl.” In fact, the second Amity let her presence known to Eda, she was immediately held at staff point and got the interrogation of a lifetime. Eda was relentless; her soul shattering voice tore through the very fabric of her being with every word, the authoritative stances she took made her feel like a mouse amongst men, and her deep piercing golden eyes burrowed through her skull throughout the entire ordeal. She had never feared for her life more than she had in that very instance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After what felt like a lifetime of emotional torture and mental suffering, Eda had finally laid off of Amity. Whether the Owl Lady had decided that she had done enough interrogating to be satisfied that Amity would not speak, or she had just gotten tired of relentlessly questioning her and gave up, Eda dropped the subject entirely. Like it had never even happened in the first place. But there was one question that continued to ring in Amity’s head nearly three years after that spat. A question that she dare not ask out of fear of bringing up what has been almost indefinitely emotionally buried. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Why not just wipe her memory?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It could have been as simple as: circle, memory wipe, bam! Like nothing had even been heard in the first place. But she never even attempted it. Maybe someday she would get an answer, but for now, she was content with keeping that metaphorical box closed and latched.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“God I feel like I’m the one being tortured here, having to listen to your shrieking manifestation of verbal waterboarding!” The one Emperor’s Coven member cried out, snapping Amity out of her train of thought.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Woah, just take it easy, man.” The other guard chuckled “It’s only a house guard, Peckall.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you kidding? Bellam, have you been listening at </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> in the past few minutes?” Peckall gestured dramatically to Hooty. “This </span>
  <em>
    <span>thing</span>
  </em>
  <span> is a master torture artist!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wow! You really think I’m a maaaster?” Hooty asked, twisting his head around. “Nobody has ever called me a master of </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span> before. What else do you like about me? I think I have the softest feathers, but nobody wants to feel for themselves, saying that I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>creepy</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>infested with parasites</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You see!?” Peckall emphasized with a grand gesture to Hooty.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“They seem distracted with Hooty.” Willow noted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, but given the circumstances and where we would fall as accomplices if we were caught entering what seems to be a crime scene, I don’t think we should go any further than this.” Gus voiced.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Noted.” Amity stated. “Now let’s check this </span>
  <em>
    <span>crime scene</span>
  </em>
  <span> out.” She pushed aside the shrubbery in front of her and stepped through the bush and towards the house, Willow hot on her heels. </span>
</p><p> </p><p><span>“I must be so good at illusion magic that I do it with no conscious effort, because apparently I’m </span><em><span>always</span></em> <em><span>invisible</span></em><span>!” Gus harshly whispered. </span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you coming or what?” Amity asked him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus puckered his lips then opened his mouth, raising his finger to emphasize the thoughts he was ready to put forward. However, one long look into Amity’s commanding amber eyes was enough to clear his mind better than any amount of meditation. All thoughts which roamed his head had been set free, replaced by nothingness. He was now at a loss for words and all that came out of his mouth was a stifled questioning hum.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity frowned.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uh... Yeah! Yeah I’m right behind you.” Gus managed to blurt out. He mentally kicked himself for being unable to stand up to Amity. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good.” Amity answered. “Now stay low and be quiet.” She disappeared once again behind the shrubs. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We are </span>
  <em>
    <span>sooo</span>
  </em>
  <span> going to get busted...” Gus whined silently to the only person listening. Himself. He quickly caught up to the girls who were trekking behind the bush line, managing to stay just out of view of the Emperor’s Coven members facing Hooty. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The three were making good progress looping around the house until Willow didn’t catch herself from stepping on a dead branch laying on the ground. The crunch was like a bomb going off right in front of them; their hard work crumpling before their very eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Aside from the stabbing pains of guilt in her stomach, the only other thing Willow could focus on in that very moment was how incredibly warm it was getting. Her face felt like it was going to melt and slowly sluff off. It also didn’t help that two sets of eyes were burrowing onto her skull, and she dare not look at either one. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey did you hear that?” Bellam questioned, his head up on a swivel towards where Amity, Willow and Gus were hiding. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can’t hear a damn thing besides this </span>
  <em>
    <span>freakin’ owl</span>
  </em>
  <span>, who </span>
  <em>
    <span>won’t shut the hell up</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” Peckall clenched his fists together, coming dangerously close to setting the entire house alight in a rage induced inferno. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Just be quiet for a sec.” Bellam waived his partner down.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A few moments passed as the bickering partners kept their ears open for any changes in the surroundings. Those few moments seemed to drag on for what felt like hours to the three teens. They stayed hunkered down, keeping as still as a picture and breathing just enough to prevent asphyxiation. The tension began to manifest in their guts, fear clinging to them like starving wild cats to their first prey in weeks. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sure it was just a wild snaggleback or something. The things are harmless.” Peckall waived his hand dismissively. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bellam was reluctant on accepting such an explanation, but they did still have their orders, and looking around in the woods did not bring them any closer to finishing their assignment. Bellam sighed and turned back around. “Yeah you’re probably right. Let’s just finish up and get out of here. These woods give me the creeps. Even in broad daylight.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright, I’ll hold the door, you get the owl.” Peckall said. He drew a brown spell circle aimed at Hooty and split it into four smaller, identical circles. He pushed the circles forward and four cylindrical rocks burst out of the ground and lodged themselves against the wood of the door.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As the rocks twisted slightly into the door, Bellam cast a large green spell circle. Vines and foliage twisted together into a heavy duty rope which wrapped around Hooty’s head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey! What’s the big idea?” Hooty exclaimed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hold still ya blabbering rat snatcher.” Bellam commanded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You can’t do this to me! I’m a living creature and I have rights, hoot hoot!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well those rights are being overridden by Emperor Bellows, so unfortunately, today isn’t your lucky day.” Bellam smiled, and not one of those happy to see you, glad you’re doing well smiles. No. This was much worse than that. The maniacal grin he sported could burn holes through the eyes of the most wicked, insane people to have walked the world, and even wretch the iron stomach of Satan himself.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Good thing he was wearing a mask.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bellam tightened his grip on the vine rope and dug his heels into the ground. He  pulled with all his might, his muscles twitching and burning as the seconds drug on. All the while Hooty cried out in pain, screeching for that “damn flightless bird-man” to leave him alone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Guys we can’t just let them do that to him!” Willow gritted her teeth. While her gut twisted from guilt earlier, it was now doing so from pure, unadulterated rage. How could they do that to a living, sentient creature?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We won’t. But we can’t just go out there and attack them. We’d get our asses handed to us.” Amity whispered. She bit her bottom lip and her eyes darted from side to side, desperately surveying the ground. A thousand ideas rushed through her mind, each more plausible than the last. After a few moments, one idea hit her which she thought may just be enough to free Hooty. “Okay,” Amity gestured everyone into a huddle, “here’s the plan.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After a short explanation, Gus snuck off in the direction where the group had just come from, facing the front of the house, Amity hunkered down right out of sight to the right of the house, and Willow ran around the back of the house. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As she got around back and out of sight, Willow ran up to the side of Eda’s house and cast a green spell circle. Vines crept out of the ground forming a makeshift staircase in front of her, leading up to the roof. She began to climb the stairs when suddenly she heard a pair of voices coming from inside the house. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You! Continue searching this area.” A faint but commanding voice bellowed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Willow stopped and hunched down, trying to eavesdrop on whatever was occurring inside the walls next to her. She heard some footsteps on a staircase and a couple of grunts, like an old man getting up from his chair after a hard day of lounging. She moved a little closer to the window to hear a little clearer.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, sir.” The same voice spoke again, this time in a noticeably less authoritative tone. “No, sir. It seems her and any accomplices have fled the vicinity.” He paused for a few moments, most likely listening to who Willow thought was his superior on the other end of the conversation. “Understood. I’ll update you with any additional information we recover.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Willow heard him end the call and begin tapping his foot quickly on the hardwood floor. He sighed and ceased the incessant tapping. The young witch quickly came to her senses and scrambled up the ladder. With more people on the inside, stopping those guys outside would get them all caught and possibly imprisoned for knowing the whereabouts of Eda’s house and not reporting anything. Who knows, they might even be considered accomplices and receive an even more horrifying punishment. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Willow shuddered. She had to call off the plan before it was too late.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity’s mind began to race. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Alright, Amity. It’s nothing to be afraid of. All you’re doing is assaulting enforcers of the Emperor’s will, the coven you’d like to join and run one day; most likely destroying any chance that you have of ever coming close to being accepted into their ranks, and getting your ass thrown in jail for an indiscernible amount of time all to stop them from taking an infuriating house demon that you don’t even like.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Oh man, this was definitely not something she was even the slightest bit prepared for. And for what reason? To save that blabbering headache Eda called a guardian? Was this even worth it?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The only reason she even considered the idea was because Hooty was friends with Luz, her best friend. Luz’s stupid love for other people and creatures sometimes caused more of a hassle than it was worth. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Okay, maybe that was taking it a little too far. But still, this could ruin her future; her entire childhood dream. And yet here she was, fully prepared to do that, all in the hopes that she could somehow make one human happy.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What was the world coming to?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity hunkered down behind the line of shrubs and peeked overtop of the hedges, drawing no attention. Sometimes having camouflaged hair came in handy. She checked on top of the house where Willow was supposed to give her signal for the all clear, but she hadn’t made it just yet. Not a problem. Not yet at least. Amity checked in front of the house where Gus was supposed to make his appearance. Again, no ready signal. She sighed. No surprise that she was the first one ready, again. What could be taking them so long?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After hearing Amity’s plan, Gus broke off and headed for cover in the line of sight of Eda’s front door. He pushed past bushes, rounded trees, and got jabbed by more thorns than he would care to admit. He periodically peeked past his cover to make sure that he was still unnoticed. And he was. However, he was more than aware of the screeches of poor, defenseless Hooty, and they broke his heart. Those heartless goons continued to pry at him, but he resisted every pry, punch and pull they threw at him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was morbid to think about, really. The fact that these idolized individuals, whom every upstanding citizen in the Boiling Isles praised, acted like common underground thugs when the spotlight was off of them. It was a true testament to the negligence of coven balances. In theory, the nine main covens are supposed to balance the power exerted by the others; sort of like how Luz’s human homeland exhibited a checks and balances system. However, it had become more apparent to Gus over the past few years that the Emperor’s Coven only played along in the role of being balanced by the other covens. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sure, the Emperor’s Coven was at the top of the chain and held the most individual power among the main covens, but it should still be in check by the other covens. And it wasn’t. This was something that Gus was beginning to notice more readily. The main event which stood out in his mind was when he attended an open meeting between leaders of the nine main covens. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was a dispute in regards to the implementation of a law which would allow increased accessibility of raven mail to the Emperor’s Coven. The Emperor’s Coven stated that in opening accessibility, they would have an increased ability to detect and negate criminal activities. However, the logistics behind this would also increase mail accessibility for everyone on the Boiling Isles, effectively allowing the general public to obtain copies of almost any letter sent by any individual.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This should have been shut down in an instant, specifically by the Oracle coven, but it was passed unanimously. There was little to no time which was actually taken by the representatives to discuss the repercussions of this law, and most of the citizens in attendance took this at face value as well. But not Gus. He knew there was something fishy going on, he just didn’t have the knowledge or resources to discover what. Though his persistence on the subject had some payoff today. There was certainly more that meets the eye here, and he would get to the bottom of it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Another soul shattering scream snapped Gus out of his thoughts and back to the reality of his rescue mission. Something he should have been more aware of in the first place. He poked his head up slowly, taking extra caution as to not alert anyone in his immediate vicinity. He gazed over to where Amity was stationed and saw her looking up to where Willow should be. He checked over there himself, but there was no sign of her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity looked back to him and they made eye contact. She put up her fist at a ninety degree angle next to her then pointed to Willow’s to be location. What was she doing up there? If they were going to make a move, now was the time. Otherwise it’ll be a missed opportunity and they will lose Hooty to the Emperor’s Coven.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Where is she?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Amity gritted her teeth together, as that and countless curse words ran rampant through her mind. She slid her hands forcefully through her hair trying to ease the building nerves. </span>
  <em>
    <span>She could’ve gotten spotted, caught, or worse...</span>
  </em>
  <span> She shook the last thought away hoping to relieve the growing pit in her stomach. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With that last thought being pushed away, Amity saw Willow’s head pop out from the back of the house. She looked nervous. Sickly nervous. She caught sight of Amity and immediately began shaking her head back and forth, and making large crosses with her arms.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity’s face scrunched for half a second as she tried to make light of her friend’s unplanned actions. And it dawned on her immediately after, but why in the world was she calling this off? She and Hooty were closer than herself and him by a long shot, and she still wanted to save him. Maybe she saw something bad. But something bad enough to risk having Hooty taken away? That was almost impossible. However, Willow’s actions wouldn’t be done without reason, so against her own morals Amity reluctantly followed Willow’s lead. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity nodded towards Willow and repeated her actions to Gus, who had a similar but more vibrant reaction than she. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hooty cried out in pain again, drawing the witches’ attention back to him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to enjoy your interrogation much more than I should.” Peckall growled, pushing the stone cylinders further into Hooty’s wood.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In an instant the screams of bloody murder ceased and Hooty’s face went neutral. His eyes began to glow a bright white hue, illuminating the rest of his features. The sudden change in mood brought Peckall and Bellam to a screeching halt. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was almost a game to them before. They get to pick on the weird house protector while simultaneously getting out some aggression due to its choice to not comply. However, this dark, ominous weight which filled the air around them shook them to their cores. Time slowed down as their hearts began to race faster and faster, each beat coming one step closer to beating a hole straight through their chests. And when things couldn’t seem to get any more nightmarish, Hooty spoke. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That high pitched horrendous voice was long gone, replaced by something so dark and sinister it would haunt even the most vile of creatures until the day they die. The low growl each syllable exerted was overlain by countless demonic voices, each more off key than the last.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You have disturbed this house and those who had resided within it.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Willow, just getting back from behind the house, clung onto Amity with all of her might. Before she knew what was happening, Amity felt Gus grab onto her as well. He was even more engulfed in the events transpiring than Willow, who was now trying desperately to push herself into Amity’s shoulder. Hooty continued. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“For your transgressions against the mighty one, you shall pay.” Hooty unhinged his jaw and opened his mouth to the size of his doorframe. He bounded above Peckall and Bellam, swiftly coming down overtop of them and swallowing them whole, like mice to a snake. Hooty returned to his normal position. His eyes flashed bright white once again and he spit out the two coven members who dropped unconsciously to the ground, covered head to toe in saliva. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hooty slumped down then immediately returned to his normal position, flush with the door and fast asleep, evident by his snoring. As soon as the demonic ordeal had begun, it ended. No layered demonic voices, no malicious undertones, just a normal house owl passed out after a hard day’s work.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What. The. Fuck.” Amity faintly muttered. Living in a world filled to the brim with vastly different creatures, creepy feats like hellish voices and ominous illumination was nothing out of the ordinary. But seeing it come from Hooty was nightmare fuel. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No sir, we would never back talk you.” Peckall whimpered from the fetal position he was curled up in. He was trembling like a young zebra cornered by lions, fear emu aging from every portion of his being.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bellam made no attempt to respond as he rocked himself back and forth, his thumb the only thing he was orally fixated on. He was a shell of the witch he was mere moments ago. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I- I don’t even know how to respond to that...” Willow timidly spoke, hands covering her mouth.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The stunned reactions of the three witches did not even begin to scrape the surface of the events which had transpired following Hooty’s consumption of Peckall and Bellam. Had they seen what had occurred to them while they were in there, those stark horrified expressions would have turned bitter, and been covered in bile.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What the hell is going on out here?” Boomed a voice from inside the house.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Guys, I think that’s their leader. I heard him inside before I tried calling off our plan.” Willow said. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The coven squad leader swung the door open and walked outside, coming to an immediate halt in front of his fallen subordinates. His head cocked slightly as he gazed down on them. “Why on our boiling hot isles are you two </span>
  <em>
    <span>lying down on the job</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” He may as well have had a megaphone hidden in his mouth because there was no way that the volume his voice achieved was possible alone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Both Bellam and Peckall were knocked out of their traumatized trance by the roar of their leader. They scrambled to try and stand at attention but only managed to fumble and flop around like they were on top of frictionless ice. Eventually they managed to get upright before receiving another earful. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, sir!” Bellam saluted. “The owl there ate us and we were-“</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t care about your excuses! I wanted you two </span>
  <em>
    <span>boobs</span>
  </em>
  <span> to take care of our prisoner! But instead you’re both lying down for a nap with him! Your lack of discipline will be addressed upon our return to the emperor’s castle. Do I make myself clear?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Crystal!” They replied in unison. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good. Now, before I decide to leave you two screw ups here for the snagglebacks to get, </span>
  <em>
    <span>restrain that guardian</span>
  </em>
  <span>!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, sir!” Now that Hooty was out cold, Peckall and Bellam were able to finish what they had started earlier: removing the rat snatcher from his nest. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We gotta help!” Amity bounced to her feet. Before she could take another step, Gus’ hand was out and pulling her back down. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you have a death wish or something?” Gus hissed. “Do you have any idea who that guy is? Because you of all people should!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What the hell is that supposed to mean? I don’t have a clue who that douche is.” Amity waived her arm over in the direction of the house. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Amity,” Gus sounded like he was scolding a two year old “that’s the commander of the emperor’s strike force. Zhou Bane. The guy is basically a walking war zone, at least in regard to his decibel level, and he’s one of the most dangerous people on the Boiling Isles! He works directly under Lilith, </span>
  <em>
    <span>your mentor</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Which is why you should at least have some clue as to who he is. Honestly, I’m not sure how you don’t.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t need a social life lesson from you of all people. Just, what’re we going to do about Hooty?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Honestly, and I hate to say it, but we need to just let this play out. If we get involved in this they’ll overpower us for sure. We’re not masters. And we’d be facing them essentially one on one, assuming there’s no more witches in the house. Which there very well could be.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He had a point. Of course he had a point. The kid genius always has to be the voice of reason and it bothered Amity to no end that defying his word of caution would likely result in her own arrest. And she couldn’t do anything from jail. She knew he was right, but she still didn’t want him growing an ego.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well it’s about time something worthwhile came out of your mouth.” Amity said, successfully sluffing off Gus’ astute situational analysis.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus narrowed his eyes to her unnecessarily backhanded compliment. He opened his mouth to object but was cut off. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Commander Bane! We’re all ready to go, sir!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good.” Bane replied. “I’ll check with our men in the house and we can get out of this wretched shit hole. I can’t stand being here.” He muttered the last part as he walked inside. Moments later he exited with one other coven member and the four hopped on their brooms, Bane having Hooty tied up in a net beneath him. With four spell circles drawn simultaneously, they were off the ground and soaring into the horizon.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Amity said, breaking the silence, “let’s check on the house.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What if they bugged it?” Gus asked. Being the most level headed witch among the three, he had his reservations about running right into a “crime scene” directly after the authorities left. Who knows if they could have left traps to catch Eda if she returned or had some kind of security cameras to identify and co-conspirators. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, </span>
  <em>
    <span>master of illusions</span>
  </em>
  <span>, why don’t you go and check for any tampering? Because we’re not leaving until we find some sort of clue as to what happened to them.” Amity prodded, knowing full well the only thing stopping them from getting in there was Gus’ nerves. And the fact that  he would do a perfect sweep of the area if she pushed him enough. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus grumbled at the jab. Amity was usually okay in his opinion, but there were some times where she went over the line of friendly banter and into just plain mean territory. And she was walking that line right now. Though she was right about one thing, he could certainly detect any trap or surveillance spell cast on the house. And he figured that she would hold true to not leaving until they check, so he thought it best to use his skills and find out if they tampered with the inside of Eda’s house. Not because he wanted to, mind you, but because the health and safety of his friends were his number one priority.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fine.” Gus begrudgingly answered. He made his way to the doorless house front and drew a sky blue spell circle in front of him. He held his hands out towards the center of the circle and opened his arms wide, expanding the circle to the size of Eda’s house. He pushed it forward and slowly but surely, the spell made its way through the entirety of Eda’s home, searching for any magical tampering which wasn’t cast by the Owl Lady. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In just a few moments the circle made it through the entirety of the house and disappeared with a pop. Gus held his position for a brief period before dropping his arms. “There’s nothing there.” He said skeptically. “They must’ve gotten all the information they needed.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Or that they could find.” Willow added.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I bet that Eda or Luz hid something in there that only someone who knows them could find. They had to...” Amity spoke, hope and fear blending in her words. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The silence around them was thick and the implication of nothing to find was crushing each one of them. Having the possibility that their best friend and essentially cool aunt had been kidnapped, or worse, without their knowing was eating them away. And standing around was only making it worse. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, let’s check it out.” Willow said, making no outward indication that she was in any way phased by Amity’s hanging void of uncertainty. Gus and Amity nodded in agreement. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The witches walked up to the front door, or lack thereof, and pushed their way through all of the broken wood chips surrounding the entrance. Amity took point and grabbed the doorframe. She carefully took a step inward, glass crackling with each step she took. Gus and Willow followed behind her as they began their investigation into what happened to their best friend and the infamous Owl Lady.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Next chapter will shift back to the main trio. Hope you all enjoyed!</b>
</p><p>
  <b>-G</b>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p>
  <strong>LazuliRose: I'm so glad that you enjoyed it, backgrounds and all! And Hooty will have more time later on; I have plans for him. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>fandolion: Hopefully this was enjoyable as well!</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>MsVenture: I'm glad! Hope you enjoyed this one too!</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Taking Flight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>A/N: Hope you all enjoy this chapter!</strong>
</p><hr/><p>"This is like, a never ending tunnel! When are we going to reach the exit?" Luz asked still a little on edge from their quick escape from the long arm of the law.</p><p>Even though they had this escape planned for years, actually executing it brought on a whole new wave of emotions. When they had talked about running away from the house, it all seemed so distant, like many of the great "what if's" of the world. But here, now, knowing that they may never be able to live in Eda's home again, brought on a gut wrenching feeling in the pit of Luz's stomach.</p><p>"Just keep going. I designed this place to look like an endless tunnel in an attempt to deter pursuers. It'll stop soon." Eda replied.</p><p>"It better! I'm getting sick and tired of looking at Luz's butt." King said.</p><p>"Oh, please. There are plenty of people who would pay top dollar for the view you're getting now."</p><p>"Yeah, maybe a bunch of legally blind people." King prodded.</p><p>"Shut it you two." Eda interjected. "We're here."</p><p>Luz put a hand over her eyes, blocking the blazing sun which was coming from the tunnel exit. She placed her other hand in front of her as she moved from the darkness into the light. As she crossed the barrier between the two, the sound of rubble emanated from all around. She turned behind her and saw nothing but cliff face in front of her, towering high above her. The dark gray and burnt sienna of the monumental wall blended seamlessly together. With no opening in sight. Like she literally walked through a wall.</p><p>"Nyeh!" King cried out.</p><p>He was teetering over the edge of the narrow walkway Luz was standing on, which she was surprised she didn't walk off herself. Luz quickly grabbed the horn of his skull and pulled him back against the wall.</p><p>"Thanks..." King sheepishly said.</p><p>"Of course. That's what friends do." Luz smiled at him. Though they have their bickering moments, and plenty of them, Luz always saw King as family, and would never let any real harm come to him. It's just what she did. It's what they all did.</p><p>"I can't believe you almost walked straight off the side!" Eda snickered. "How do you miss a drop like that?" She pointed down to where a nearby waterfall was emptying into a large body of water, about ten stories below them. While the view was picturesque, what with the wondrous waterfall, lovely lake, and remarkable rainbows radiating all around, the deadly drop kind of took away from the feeling of awe. Especially since they were in the danger zone.</p><p>"You wouldn't be laughing if <em>your</em> life flashed before your eyes!" King raised an accusatory finger to her.</p><p>"Pft. If that ever happened it would be from something a little more frightening than a cliff; something which, by the way, I could just fly to safety from." Eda popped her staff out next to her and cracked a smile.</p><p>"If you two are done," Luz interjected "we're kind of running away from the Emperor's Coven." She pointed back towards the tunnel.</p><p>Eda chuckled. "You're right, kid. We'd better get going."</p><p>"Speaking of, where are we even going?" Luz asked. "You never actually told me anything beyond going through this tunnel despite me constantly asking you."</p><p>"You're lucky she told you that much." King prodded, side eyeing Eda.</p><p>"Well, if you must know," Eda began, fully ignoring King's attempt at pressing her buttons, "the whole reason I never told you was because I wanted to save this surprise for when we were running for our lives."</p><p>"What're you talking about?" Luz asked. If Eda had meant the view, Luz was in for quite the let down considering the first day she arrived on the Isles she was greeted by the beautiful sight that is the whole island.</p><p>Eda casted a brown spell circle next to her, subsequently driving her fist through it and into the cliff side. The wall began to shake and crumble as rocks of all shapes and sizes began tumbling down from above them.</p><p>"Look out below!" Eda cried out with a playfully maniacal laugh.</p><p>Luz and King yelped with each leap they took in a frantic attempt to avoid being flattened, battered or bruised. And there were more than a few close encounters which would have left them integrated into the ledge before the onslaught stopped.</p><p>"Nyeh! Eda! What the hell!" King cried out. "You could've smooshed my perfect fearsome face!"</p><p>"And I <em>do not</em> want to die by some rocks." Luz pointed up. "That would be the lamest way to die, ever. I imagined my death would be by some super powerful witch who mastered every single spell there is, and had spent years planning an intricate slew of treacherous traps to catch me, only to find out that I knew their plan the whole time and was just leading them on. Then I <em>bash</em> their skull in with a pair of brass knuckles that I end up getting from an old man and his brother sailing the world!"</p><p>"But you didn't even die in that scenario." King pointed out.</p><p>"Oh yeah. Totally forgot. I die of old age in that one."</p><p>Eda chuckled. "And I thought I had a wild imagination. But speaking of bashing skulls, I have a present for you, Luz. Well- actually, it's more of a "graduation" gift. Graduation being from the Eda C. School of Bad Girl Magic!" She waived her hand in front of her in a large arch as she announced her made up school name.</p><p>"Wait. You're saying that I graduated from your training?" Luz squealed.</p><p>"Yep!" Eda said proudly.</p><p>"Hold on. But why now, when we're running from the Emperor's Coven?"</p><p>Eda cracked a smile. She knew that this day would eventually come; that she would eventually be on the run once again. Though she couldn't have imagined what happened to be the reason as to why she was being so strenuously followed. And to think that she was a goblin's hair away from being on the opposite end of the chase. Life really does find a way to always surprise you.</p><p>"Because you just passed your final exam!"</p><p>Luz squealed once again. "Yes yes yes yes yesss! Aha! I knew I could do it!" Then, like a beam of sunlight on a dark, stormy day, it dawned on her. "What exam did I pass?"</p><p>"You survived your first, probably unwarranted, house raid!"</p><p>"On your own house." King added. "Otherwise I would've graduated her school <em>long</em> ago."</p><p>"Oh man. Eda does this mean I'm your equal now?" Luz asked hopefully.</p><p>"Far from it." She laughed. "I've still got a couple years experience on you. Besides, you're the only other witch besides me who I wouldn't want to fight. And that's the reason that I got you your graduation gift."</p><p>Eda pulled out some rocks and dusted around the area where she had left a witch sized hole in the wall. She grasped her hand around the thin, lengthy object which she had placed there and yanked it out, leaving the extra rubble to fall to the ground. Eda dusted the rusty and dusty item off a bit, satisfied that it was exactly how she had left it.</p><p>She stuck the long rod in the ground and casted a blue spell circle above it. The circle ran down the shaft, revealing the true form of the item she had pulled out.</p><p>In Eda's hand was the most perfect thing Luz could have ever imagined. A long pole beautifully crafted with the nine colors of the main covens intertwining and swirling up the shaft. There were ridges ingrained where she would be better able to sit while using it to fly, and as grasping points for when it was being held. Atop the staff was but a small nub, one which was the perfect size to place a palisman of her own on. And if it was any smaller she would have missed it, but right at the top was a circle missing a portion from its top. And within that circle was the glyph of the first spell she had ever learned: her light spell.</p><p>Eda gave the staff a quick twirl and stuck it out towards Luz, who, despite all characteristics, was at a loss for words. She hesitantly reached out for the staff, her hands trembling with the swell of emotions which were building within her.</p><p>Luz had never thought that Eda would give her a gift for graduating her rigorous magical curriculum. Hell, she never actually thought that she would graduate, period. That in of itself was quite the achievement considering Eda took it upon herself to actually start teaching Luz more spells once she became sick of the constant wooing over Hexside. She was pretty sure Eda only began teaching the hard stuff to show that she was not only the best witch on the Boiling Isles, but the best teacher too. And what is the best teacher if not a horrifyingly astute master.</p><p>Luz still remembered the day when she was "officially enrolled" into the Eda C. School of Bad Girl Magic.</p><p>"<em>So anyway, I started blastin-"</em></p><p>"<em>Luz." Eda stopped her. "You know I love how you get into trouble, especially when it involves Bump and those suction cup foam projectiles, but did you get him with any magic? You know, maybe a little abomination goop here, some biting plant traps there; making use of your education that I got you into."</em></p><p>
  <em>Eda took a sip of apple blood from her #1 Bad Girl mug and placed it back on the counter. Luz was on another one of her Hexside rants which she tended to go on after a particularly interesting day of class. This one consisted of what she called a "Nerf gun" which shot out toy projectiles. Not exactly Eda's style, but the mischief is what really counted.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Luz had made a trip to visit her mother a few days ago and brought it back after finding it in a donations box which was going to be given to some good guy named Will, for whatever reason. She brought it back and had been messing around with it with a few of her friends from school, getting those things stuck on each other's foreheads and on a bunch of different items throughout her house.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>They had thought it would be funny to take in a gun for each of them and start shooting a bunch of the students, both in and out of class. That's what landed them in Bump's office in the first place. And apparently Luz thought that shooting one onto his forehead would be an excellent way to break the tension of their visit to see him.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Eda was sure it wasn't, but she could only handle so much PG in her pranks.</em>
</p><p>"<em>I know, Eda. But they all seemed to really like playing with the stuff, and they haven't really found too much excitement in the stuff I brought here from Earth recently, well, except Gus, so I had to run with it for a while. It's not that I don't love using the spells that I'm learning there; enrolling at Hexside is one of the best things that's ever happened to me. I just want to show that some of the stuff that I grew up with can be just as fun as magic. I guess it just sounds better in my head..." Luz folded her arms on the table and slumped into them.</em></p><p>
  <em>Eda's heart went out to the poor girl buried in herself in front of her, not that she wanted to show it that much. But she knew what it was like to want that sort of attention from her peers and the authority figures in her life. She was always treated like a child, and she refused to let her protégé feel the same way.</em>
</p><p>"<em>Now listen here." Eda pulled Luz's head up, staring her dead in the eyes. "There's nothing wrong with the fun you had today, in fact, I would've loved to have been a part of it, but it could have been so much better. You're a witch now, Luz. You're able to set things on fire, summon monsters, and disappear at will. It may have been fun, but it could have been </em><em><strong>awesome</strong></em><em>."</em></p><p>"<em>But Eda-"</em></p><p>"<em>No buts. After hearing about this pitiful display, I've decided I have to help you learn the greatest spells magic has to offer." She snapped her fingers. "And I know just how to do it!"</em></p><p>
  <em>Eda cast a sky blue spell circle in the air which dropped a thick red book on the table in front of them, landing with a loud thud.</em>
</p><p>"<em>The Encyclopedia of Dark Magic, Volume 1. Written by A. H. Egao." Luz read the curvy, yet ridged text of the front cover.</em></p><p>"<em>That's right. If you're going to be a master witch, you're going to have to learn all the spells that they won't teach you in Hexside too. And that starts with this big guy right here." Eda tapped on the book. "I hereby assign this reading to you as the sole teacher, and founder, of the Eda C. School of Bad Girl Magic. Patton pending."</em></p><p>"<em>You mean that you're going to teach me all the cool and dangerous spells that you know?" Luz bounced excitedly. Just like that, she was back to her old self.</em></p><p>"<em>You got it." Eda smiled smugly. "Now you better get reading because our first exam is tomorrow and it'll be a killer." She took another sip of her apple blood.</em></p><p>"<em>You got it, teach!" Luz grabbed the book off the table. "Ew! Why is it all wet?" She asked, horribly grossed out, rubbing her hand on her uniform to try and dry it off.</em></p><p>"<em>Everything he writes is either wet or hot. It's a real pain in the ass for studying. Just get to it, kid."</em></p><p>
  <em>Luz saluted her newest teacher and bounced up to her room, still trying to wipe off whatever secretions were all over her hand.</em>
</p><p>"Eda..." Luz gently glided her hand over the gift. It was smooth but easy to grip, almost like some kind of plastic-rubber hybrid material. Must be yet another thing only accessible to the residents of the Boiling Isles. Or maybe just Eda.</p><p>A tear welled up in the corner of Luz's eye. Followed by another, and another; and before she knew it, she had streams running down both of her cheeks. "It's the most wonderful gift that anyone has ever gotten me..." She sniffeled and wiped her face dry with her sleeve.</p><p>Eda crosses her arms and smiled. "Well I'm-"</p><p>She couldn't even get a sentence out before Luz was wrapped around her waist, clutching to her like it was the last time she would ever see her. And over the past four years that she had known Luz, there was some foreign feeling which had gradually bubbled up. A feeling which radiated well enough to notice but was just out of reach, like a word you know, one that's on the very tip of your tongue, but just can't make itself known to the world.</p><p>And here it was, rearing it's metaphorical face once again, and making Eda just the slightest bit uneasy. She was the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles after all, so when something comes along that makes her question what to do, especially when it's outside of her normal routine of steal, brew, sell and repeat, it's kind of a big deal.</p><p>But anything having to do with Luz has turned into a big deal. And that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.</p><p>Eda could only smile and ruffle the hair of the not-so-little kid that she had grown to really care for over the years. They truly had gone through the best and worst with each other, creating memories of the most euphoric moments and darkest days. It was almost frightening to Eda, how much of an impact Luz had on her. And to think that it all happened because she had accidentally caught a glimpse of Owlbert stealing her trash. But the end of the day, every decision they made led them to each other. And isn't finding that person what makes life worth living?</p><p>"I'm glad you like it." Eda pulled Luz in tighter, feeling the full embrace of her eccentric mentee.</p><p><em>All things considered</em>, Eda thought, <em>this is a pretty serene moment</em>.</p><p>"Make room for meee!" King called out as he jumped up to the side of Luz's shoulder, grabbing her and Eda in the process. "You know, Luz," King drooped down and began proudly adjusting his chest fur, "if you think that's cool, you should see the graduation gift that <em>I</em> got you."</p><p>King dropped his nap sac on the ground and began to rummage through it, grumbling at every item which was not the one he was searching for. Metal clanked on metal, plastic scraped across bone, and a little siren started to wail before it was quickly shut off.</p><p>After a few moments, Eda crosses her arms impatiently and glanced at Luz, who was engrossed in King's over exemplified display of attention grabbing antics.</p><p>"Aha!" King shouted, jumping out of the bag whose contents now plagued the area around him. "May I present to you, the Ring of Shadows!" He held up the item he pulled out of his pack.</p><p>While it had an interesting name, it was sort of misleading. The Ring of Shadows was not all that shadow-like. It was a bone white ring, a little thicker than an average wedding band, with two spikes protruding outwards like little devil horns. It was obvious the name didn't come from its looks, so why was it named after something it did not resemble in the slightest?</p><p>"Now I know what you're thinking." King stuck his paws up, wanting to address any concerns before he was bombarded with questions.</p><p>"That she'd never say yes? Or that you're not her type?" Eda prodded.</p><p>"No." King answered quickly enough to elicit a satisfied grunt from Eda. "That, if this is the Ring of <em>Shadows</em>, why does it look like a heavenly devil?"</p><p>"Pretty much, yeah." Luz nodded.</p><p>"Well, you see, while it might look like something much lighter than the name leads on, its power is the driving force behind why the demons who discovered it called it that." He places the ring into Luz's hand.</p><p>Luz cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head, to which King gladly continued.</p><p>"This ring has the ability to morph into whatever the bearer imagines. Within reason, of course. It's not like you could make a planet or something out of it. That'd be ridiculous! But you can create shields, maces, axes, swords, daggers; all the stuff which could help you destroy your foes!"</p><p>"King, it's not working." Luz pointed to the ring which was securely fastened around her middle finger. The points were facing outwards, but it looked exactly the same as when he pulled it out.</p><p>"What do you mean it's not working?" He quickly jumped over to look at her hand, pulling it right up to his face.</p><p>"See, this is why you don't get magical accessories from a demon." Eda chided, pulling out her staff.</p><p>"I swear it just worked for me like a week ago when I bought it off of a silhouette guy at the night market!"</p><p>Eda puckered her lips and raised her eyebrows.</p><p>King's shoulders slumped at the sudden realization of his mistake. He slapped himself on the forehead, the loud thwack resinating oddly well for being so close to a waterfall. "I got scammed."</p><p>"You- got- scammed." Eda slowly spoke each word, her voice dripping with the most condescending tone she could muster.</p><p>"I don't need to hear it from you!" King pointed accusatorially towards Eda.</p><p>"Well I'm not the one who couldn't spy a piece of cheap plastic from a guy who was <em>literally </em>shady!"</p><p>"Oh please! Like you haven't gotten smoothed over before! Like the time you-"</p><p>King and Eda's bickering seemed to fade away as Luz rotated the ring around her finger. While Eda did say that the "Ring of Shadows" was just a cheap fake, there was something eerie about it. Something that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She continued twisting it around, the devil horns moving towards and away from her with every push.</p><p>Yes, Eda was the finest collector of rare and powerful items, and if something as versatile as a ring that changes into anything with only a thought was out there, she would be the one to know what it should look and feel like, right? But she also had her moments too. She was, for lack of a better term, human after all.</p><p>The whole thing just didn't sit well with Luz. Something was off, but she did not have the slightest idea on how to address it. And she was sure that standing around here doing nothing but bickering wouldn't help her figure it out, or get them out of the situation they were currently on the run from.</p><p>"Well what about the time we raced, and you tripped and ate dirt? You flung me into the ocean so I wouldn't win!" King was beyond riled up, sunk into a preemptive fighting pose, poking at Eda's leg.</p><p>"Guys." Luz said.</p><p>Eda backed up, balled a fist and pointed her long, bony finger back at the small demon. "Well it's not like we established any rules against creative problem solving!"</p><p>"Guys." Luz spoke a little more forcefully.</p><p>"There were megaladons in there!"</p><p>"Guys!" Luz shouted, her free hand above her head.</p><p>"What?" King answered.</p><p>"Huh?" Eda responded at the same time. She looked over at the clearly exasperated teen. "What's her problem?" She side mouthed King, who only shrugged in response.</p><p>"Don't we have to get going? You know, Emperor's Coven tracking us and all."</p><p>"Well, those losers don't have a clue as to where we slipped out, I made sure of that myself." Eda chuckled. "But you're probably right. It's time to set off to my getaway place. A little place in Gastrow, hidden away in one of the forests there."</p><p>"Wait. Isn't Gastrow the place near the center of the isles? The one that makes Bonesborough look like a sanctuary by comparison?" Luz heard of it once or twice before, but the only thing that really stuck was that it was where the lowest of the low reside. That the only good to come from it was that it gave a place for the thieves and murderers that thieves and murderers are afraid of a place to call home.</p><p>Nobody ever went there, and if they did, they certainly didn't come out.</p><p>"That's the one!" Eda happily called out.</p><p>"You know, once, just once, I would like to go on some sort of adventure with you that didn't involve certain endangerment and probable death." Luz grumbled.</p><p>"Oh, please. It's my call to danger which gives me my lovable charm. Well, that and the perfume I bought off a traveling merchant, who also told me I'd be in for a shocking discovery later in life. Glad I didn't pay for that fortune!" Eda snorted and twirled her staff, kicking up dust as she jabbed it into the ground.</p><p>"Alright, as much as I like making fun of merchants, I'm with Luz. We gotta get out of here, in case by some miracle those coven guys find us." King gestured to his human companion. "I mean, how bad would it look if the king of demons was thrown into jail? I don't belong in jail! I belong out here, planning invasions, war paths, and the inevitable launch of my very own cookware line!"</p><p>"King's Kitchenware does have a very nice ring to it." Luz agreed.</p><p>"Yeah, but it's not nonstick. Cleaning those pans would be such a pain if I couldn't use all types of magic." Eda added.</p><p>"Hello. Coven ransacking our house, chasing us down, ringing any bells?" King crosses his arms in a huff.</p><p>"Yeah, okay. Don't get your furry little tookus in a bunch." Eda agreed. She dropped her staff, which began floating at her waist thanks to Owlbert. "Everybody hop on!"</p><p>Luz happily hopped on the end of Eda's staff with King perched over her shoulder. The Owl Lady sat side-saddle before calling out her favorite getaway phrase.</p><p>"Hit it magic stick!"</p><p>They took off in a gust of wind, barreling straight out towards the waterfall. Luz tightened her grip on the staff to the point her knuckles began to lighten a few hues.</p><p>Eda cackled as she spiraled downwards, parallel to the majestic roaring water which accompanied them. The mist which sprayed around them casted a beautiful rainbow of color all around the inlet in which they were. If it weren't for the purposeful, hellish flying of her mentor, Luz would have thought this to be one of the most beautiful spots in all the Boiling Isles. Definitely a perfect date locale, had she been gutsy enough to ask a certain someone out.</p><p>But that's neither here nor there.</p><p>Eda made a sharp ninety degree turn just a stone's throw away from the body of water below them, kicking up waves of water besides them. As they skated above the crystal clear lagoon, Luz gripped Eda's staff with her knee pits and let herself swing upside down. She grazed the surface of the water with her fingertips and let out a deep sigh.</p><p>While danger was much more imminent here than on Earth, there was a mystical bliss about the Boiling Isles. Where else could you dangle upside down from a witches staff going over fifty miles per hour while simultaneously feeling like you're wrapped in the world's coziest security blanket?</p><p>While she knew that their destination was going to be one of the toughest, lawless places in this world, Luz couldn't help but feel at peace in the company of her second family. For now, all was right with the world, and as soon as they got back and this was all over, she was ready to take the next step into making this world a true home for herself.</p><hr/><p>"Fireball!" Amity shouted, her finger pointing through the purple spell circle in front of her. A burst of bright, superheated fire came bellowing out from in front of her. It engulfed the large practice dummy in front of her, burning it to ash and leaving only the metal skeletal rod standing in its wake.</p><p>Amity bound and somersaulted to the next target, caddy corner to the one she had just fried. This one was twice the size of the last and she was ready to take it down as well. She planted her foot backwards and with a twist of both her hands, created a larger, green spell circle in the air in front of her.</p><p>Rampaging vines violently erupted from the ground before her, angrily snapping in every direction. Amity waived her hand in front of her, and with the command, the vegetation sprung towards the training dummy. Limbs were chopped, ripped and shredded to pieces before the onslaught had come to a halt, leaving just a few tattered remains clinging on for dear life.</p><p>Amity ran towards the last practice dummy, one which would put even the largest of giants to shame. She slid into position like a baseball player, coming to a stop just a few meters away from the dummy's base. She propped herself onto her hand, using it as a pivot point as she spun herself in a circle, keeping one heel dug into the ground. That heel generated a large, deep purple spell circle underneath her.</p><p>"Titan abomination, rise!" Amity bellowed, rising to her feet and jumping backwards out of the spell's wake.</p><p>The ground began to bubble and wave, like the ocean surface on a windy day. Two massive arms burst out of the ground, splattering the surroundings with a thick layer of purple goop. The hands laid flat on the ground as the arms bent then stretched, pulling the monstrous abomination upward.</p><p>It's head crested the ground, followed by three piercing, soulless yellow eyes and gaping mouth. As it's chest began to rise up, the titan's arms began to shudder, and if one listened closely, they could hear deep grunts as well. It's knee pushed through the purple wake, but it seemed in doing so, it was too much for the creature to handle.</p><p>The abomination's hands slipped out from underneath it, causing its balance to falter. Amity's abomination began to tilt backwards, towards its master. Like a slow motion disaster scene, the titan plummeted towards the ground, incoherent mumbles of surprise reverberating from it.</p><p>Amity couldn't help but watch the symphony of destruction which was unfolding in front of her. Her abominations were impeccable. She knew she was ready to take the plunge to summon a titan, even though she was told countless times of its level of difficulty. But she was the greatest witchling on the Boiling Isles, and her specialty was in abominations after all.</p><p>So what happened? Why was she failing? And more importantly, why wasn't she moving out of the way so she wouldn't be crushed by this towering beast of an abomination she failed to correctly summon?</p><p>These questions took a backseat as her mind made a detour. They say that when you face imminent death, your life flashes before your eyes. You get to see everything that happened to you; the good, the bad, and the beautiful. This wasn't an uncommon occurrence, and it held true for Amity, right here, right now.</p><p>"<em>Luz</em>..." Amity whispered.</p><p>Right before her eyes, a flash of blue planted itself in front of her. With the twirl of a staff, the same hue was dispersed all around her in the form of a protective shield.</p><p>The abomination toppled on top of the shield, pierced completely through by the protective bubble. Purple goop was sloshed in every direction, coating the training yard in a sticky mess no one would want the displeasure of having to clean. The abomination let out one last stifled sigh before returning to a lifeless mass, it's dreadful aroma now filling the air with the distinct scent of rotting carcasses.</p><p>A dense fog of dread set in as the staff of Amity's savior hit the ground, dissipating the shield which protected her from what she expected to be certain death. Though, with the look of disappointment gazing down upon her, Amity couldn't help but wish that the shield wasn't there to begin with.</p><p>After all, Lilith Clawthorne had a gaze which could turn your insides out and make you wish you wish for blindness.</p><p>Typically reserved for her enemies, Lilith's gaze had found its way to Amity. The poster child for the talent which should be expected of new Emperor's Coven members. At least, that's what she had always thought before.</p><p>"What happened?" Lilith questioned, her words stinging with every syllable.</p><p>"I- I don't know." Amity began.</p><p>"That's not a good enough answe. You were ready to take this step. More ready than any of my other protégés before you." Lilith spoke a little softer, knowing that harshly reprimanding Amity would actually cause a backtrack in her overall progress. She could thank her parents for that psychological impairment.</p><p>"I know. I thought I was ready too, but..." Amity bit her lip. There were so many different things running through her mind, and she just couldn't think straight with everything jumbling around in there. "But I'm ready now. Let me have another shot at the triple threat." She insisted, with about fifty percent fake confidence.</p><p>This was about fifty percent too much fake confidence for Lilith's liking. She dropped her staff beside her, which floated next to them. Lilith took a seat on the staff and softly patted the spot next to her.</p><p>Amity was hesitant at taking the seat at first, given her mentor's initial reaction to her failure. But she eventually pushed that thought aside, figuring it best to just get this out of the way before it was eventually drug out from her, like everything else.</p><p>"So, let's hear it. What unstoppable force has gotten lodged into your head so well that it's effecting you're performance?" Lilith asked.</p><p>Amity pushed a few stray hairs away, tucking them neatly behind her ear. Now that she had a second to gather her thoughts a little better, she was more certain of what had given her such a problem during her practice session. Or, more accurately, <em>who</em>. But considering the tensions that were between her own mentor and Luz's, now might not be the best time to come <em>completely</em> clean. At least not so much such that Lilith catches wind of something Eda may or may not have done and put her in more trouble.</p><p>"Well... I guess you could call it a certain- infatuation. Maybe." Amity hesitantly started. What was she thinking? She was in over her head. Why would she say that? Infatuation? She could have just said she had received a poor mark on one of her exams at Hexside and this whole discussion could have been avoided! She sighed. Unfortunately, it was too late to stop now.</p><p>"Oh?" Lilith's brow peaked, edging her protégé on, who was still at odds with herself but reluctantly continued.</p><p>"Yeah. This person from school recently left with basically no explanation as to why, and I guess I'm just a little upset about it." Amity bit her bottom lip. "Not that I'm <em>angry</em> or anything like that!" She quickly added. "Just that, I didn't really get to say goodbye, and I don't know when she'll return. They!" She backtracked. "When <em>they'll</em> return..."</p><p>Lilith hummed. A sound that, to Amity, meant she knew very well what was going on. Maybe even a little <em>too</em> well.</p><p>"You know," Lilith began, rubbing her thumbs on her staff "back when I was your age, I had a huge crush on one of the boys in my class. His name was Sygnin. He wasn't the most attractive guy, or the most athletic, and he was a transfer from Glandus high, so he didn't have the best reputation around Hexside, if you know what I mean."</p><p>"A little too well..." Amity muttered to herself.</p><p>"But he had this- <em>charm</em> about him. Something that I had never seen before I met him. He drew me in and I wanted nothing else than to just be with him. In more ways than one." She winked, eliciting a bright red blush from her protégé. With a soft chuckle, Lilith continued. "Unfortunately, at that age, I was too shy to ask him on a date, and he never asked me either. I never got to connect with him during our time at Hexside, and I haven't actually talked to him since."</p><p>Amity slumped a little on the staff, rubbing her hands together as though they were frost bitten and this was her only way to avoid getting them chopped off. Lilith continued before Amity ended up bolting for the door without another thought.</p><p>"My point here isn't to make you feel worse, contrary to what you're probably feeling now. The only thing I want you to take away from my shortcoming in high school, is that if you want your hot date to actually be <em>your hot date</em>, then you should make your move; otherwise you'll end up hung on the infinite "what if's" of what your life would be like if you had actually acted on your feelings."</p><p>Amity looked back up to her mentor, a deep sadness welling in the pit of her stomach. Her amber eyes showing all the pain and turmoil going through her mind in that split second. All those "what if's" seemed more and more tangible given the circumstances; and that wasn't something that Amity wanted to focus on.</p><p>Lilith rested a hand on the internally panicking teen. "I'm sure wherever they are, they're in some of the most capable hands on the entire Boiling Isles."</p><p>While there was no way of knowing for certain what was happening to Luz right now, Lilith did have a point. No matter where she had run off to in such a hurry, Eda was with her. And if there was one thing the Owl Lady could do, it was survive. Luz was in good hands, relatively speaking, and whatever came their way, Amity was feeling confident that they could handle it.</p><p>"Thank you." Amity softly smiled. She hopped off the staff and straightened out her shirt. "Now, I'd like to try the course again. If that's okay."</p><p>Lilith smiled. "Of course. Let me just set up the two you destroyed and you can try it once more."</p><hr/><p>
  <em>As if it wasn't bad enough that Bane had come back from his assignment empty handed, minus that fleabag of a house demon, I was essentially told that there was no trail left behind for us to follow. Now under normal circumstances I would believe this outcome and write it off as incomplete and close the file; however, considering this is Edalyn after all, I will not so easily accept this outcome.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>No, once again she had gotten the upper hand, and unfortunately, I will be reporting this to the Emperor. As far as rulers go, he's a fairly understanding individual. But I fear that he may soon be fed up with my lack of apprehension, and begin to find a replacement for me. An event which would essentially result in my... permanent retirement.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I still find myself unable to sleep at night knowing that Belos had decreed Edalyn as a Class VI threat. Sure, she had sat happily upon her throne of Class IV for years with the whole petty theft and refusal to join a coven, which is a whole other story in itself; but I had never imagined that she would jump a whole class, Class V, the murdering class, to get placed at the peak as an outlaw. There was no reason for it, and I should know; I read her file every day for any kind of new development.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But what reason would he have to give her such priority of our enforcement squadrons?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>There has to be something that I am missing, but for the life of me I just cannot place my finger on what. I would say I should just rest on it and try my luck again in the morning, but I have been trying that for weeks now, still to no avail.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Oh well. As always, I leave you with this: Edalyn, wherever you are, whomever you're with, please do not get in over your head. You get dangerously close at times, but now, now that they're coming at you with everything they've got, you need to keep a low profile and stay somewhere far, far away from here. His reach is limited by our strength, and right now you had better be long enough gone that he isn't able to grasp you. You may be a wanted criminal, the current apex to be specific, but you're still my sister, and I could never live with myself if something were to happen to you.</em>
</p><p>Lilith gracefully placed her quill back into the small, cubic ink container atop her broad desk. The single candle flickering next to her illuminated the slew of papers that were misshapenly stacked around her, balls of crumpled paper in and around the waste bin, claw marks ingrained into her desktop, and the dark circles which promenaded underneath her eyes.</p><p>She could not remember the last time that she had got more than a few hours of sporadic sleep in a night, and even then she counted herself lucky when that happened. Well, actually, it was probably before Belos' announcement, but that seemed like months ago to her. Each night was the same as the last. Lay down, think about Eda, roll over, think about Eda, force herself to focus on the most mundane of mental tasks, and right back to Eda she would go. Not a lick of sleep gracing her, even though the physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion always covered every ounce of her being.</p><p>And it certainly wasn't going to get any better tonight.</p><p>Amity had told her that Luz had just up and left, without the slightest hint of a goodbye. From what she had gathered on the human girl, she wasn't one to just move on without telling at least one person why she was doing it. Let alone the girl she had a crush on.</p><p>While she would never say a thing to either of the two girls, Lilith could tell that they had it bad for one another. But they were both too dense to see it.</p><p>Specifically Luz.</p><p>For the longest time, Amity had a crush on her. She had tried for a while to get Luz's attention in that way, but it had always fallen on deaf ears. Then at some point, Luz crushed back, but after the constant rejection, Amity wasn't picking up what she was putting down. It honestly broke Lilith's heart to see her young protégé so downtrodden, but she felt it wasn't her place to intervene. Besides, she knew the looks they gave each other all too well; they wouldn't be giving up on each other until they got what they wanted.</p><p>But disappearing out of the blue was not consistent with that. There had to be something bigger at play here. But what? What could be <em>so</em> important that Edalyn uproots her life and takes her apprentice to some location, who knows where? It wasn't right. Even with her being deemed a Class VI threat.</p><p>Eda wasn't a murderer, that much she knew, but Belos refused to give her a straight answer, when he even answered her at all. Always going on about some nonsense of "the greater good" or "a pain in my ass for too long."</p><p>She was sick of the constant anxiety and lack of respect. She was his number two, after all. The head of his coven. And someone in that position should know what is happening, especially when considering the fact that it's her own sister.</p><p>"Ugh!" Lilith slammed her fist down on the desktop, causing the towers of paper to sway, as some loose pieces were knocked off, floating gently to the ground.</p><p>She blew a strand of hair out of her face and pushed herself up, skidding the chair across the wooden floor with a muffled screech. With a quick puff of her breath, the candle was blown out leaving the embers to give off a small bit of smoke.</p><p>Another sleepless night awaited her as Lilith changed into her oversized sleeping sweatshirt and long, cotton slacks. Usually comforting to the point where she would almost fall asleep in them on her way to bed, she had no problem getting there this time. She rolled herself into her large bed, which looked similar to a raven's nest, but with many more pillows.</p><p>She stretched and yawned, curling up into a ball with a pillow clutched tightly to her chest. Come morning she was going to have to check on Eda's house herself. If there was one thing that she knew, it was that her sister could hide almost anything from the law. But there were a few tricks that she picked up along the years which may just help her find what was probably left behind and unable to be tracked by any of her subordinates.</p><p>Maybe, if she could find Edalyn, she could finally get an answer as to why she was being hunted so relentlessly.</p><hr/><p>
  <strong>Until next time, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>-G</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>MsVenture: So glad you liked it!</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. No Tres</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Hey, it's been a while. School kind of took over my life, but I don't plan on giving up on this fic! Enjoy chapter 5!</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>-G</strong>
</p><hr/><p>
  <em>
    <span>FLASHBACK</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wow... They </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> did a number on the place.” Gus observed as he carefully made his way into Eda’s house, following Willow and Amity. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And this, unfortunately, was a profound understatement. The splintered edging of the doorframe Hooty used to inhabit was only the first in a long line of damaged property they would find. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The entire living room had wood chips and glass scattered about, like a dusting of dangerous snow. They couldn’t take one step without an echoing crunch coming from underneath their shoes, or kicking some piece of debris across the floor, knocking and scattering other pieces around it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But those pieces wouldn’t make it very far considering that patches of floorboards were missing entirely. In a few spots scattered throughout the living room alone there were holes torn up big enough to hide a body in. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hopefully that’s just a coincidence. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity walked over to the hole in the floor closest to them, the sounds of what would under normal circumstances be satisfying crunches filling the air around her. Now they were just a reminder that her best friend and her family had been driven off by the Emperor’s Coven. Amity went to the edge, where she stood and looked down. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nothing but darkness. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She drew a small yellow spell circle in front of her, creating a ball of light in the palm of her hand. A destitutional smile arose on her lips as she dropped it above the opening. As the light floated gently past the floorboards, cresting into the abyss, she could begin to see some shadows being casted by objects below. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity carefully got down onto her knees, making special note to not get any glass or wood lodged into the palms of her hands.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Careful, Amity!” Willow called out from the front door. With all the destruction that happened to Eda’s home, she barely registered Amity leaning over into a hole to who knows where. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity rolled her eyes in response. “I’m fine, Willow.” She loved her childhood friend to death, but all she was going to do was look through a dark hole surrounded by sharp objects in the floor of a wanted criminal’s raided home. What’s to be overly careful about? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She poked her head down through the opening, heeding Willow’s concern just a bit. And it was exactly as she had expected.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everything was upside down. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No, wait. That was just her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Orientation aside, this was just a plain ole run of the mill basement. Sure, it might not look as cozy as her own, but it didn’t seem maniacal or anything of the sort. She got a good look around, but upside down from a floor above wasn’t good enough for her. She had to get down there and take a closer look. Hopefully Luz or Eda left some kind of directions, coordinates, or at the very least </span>
  <em>
    <span>a heart felt goodbye letter!</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Woah, reel it in, Blight. Reel it in.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She took a calming breath, quickly talking herself down. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She popped back out of the hole, waiting just a second before she got up. She dusted off her knees and clapped her hands together. “Okay,” she said, grabbing the attention of both her friends who had found their ways to opposite ends of the room. “There’s three floors to this place, and three of us. I say we each take a floor and try to find any clues to where Luz, Eda and King may have ran off to.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nods were all given in agreement.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll take the basement. Gus, you take this floor, and Willow, search upstairs. Yell if you find anything.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Got it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Will do.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus began meandering around the living room, searching high and low for anything which could give the group even the slightest hint as to where Eda, Luz and King took off to. He checked small holes in the walls, behind pictures, posters and furniture, and had even begun digging through the innards of Eda’s couch, something which he would </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>recommend. And all he had to show for it were a few scrapes and a couple foam darts. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll never find anything at this rate.” He muttered to himself, just before cracking a confident ace-in-the-hole smile. “Good thing I’m the greatest illusionist Hexside has to offer!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With the flick of his wrists, two cyan spell circles were completed, summoning half a dozen clones of himself. “Alright, gentlemen!” He barked in an authoritative, drill sergeant tone. “You may be one of the most handsome brigades I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, but that won’t get you far today! No, </span>
  <em>
    <span>today </span>
  </em>
  <span>you must go beyond your charming exteriors and dig deep to find the motivation necessary to locate a hidden message from the Owl Lady!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>One of the clones raised his hand. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, you.” Gus pointed at his clone. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do we know for sure that she left a message for us to find?” He asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well... No. No we don’t. But! Anyone who has an escape plan which doesn’t include everyone they care about, certainly leaves a message behind for said people to find!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The same clone raised his hand once more. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus sighed. “Yes, you again.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do we know for sure that she cares about us?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uh... </span>
  <em>
    <span>Well</span>
  </em>
  <span>- no. We don’t know that either...” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This might take longer than without the clones. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The sound of Willow’s footsteps echoed through the stairwell as she creaked her way up to the second floor. Even the sound of Gus’ glass crackling steps weren’t enough to mask her own noisy tracks. Eda really needed to do some renovations to this place, and, well, now would be the perfect time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Willow herself wasn’t very good at general renovations, but she felt as though she had a pretty good eye for what would really bring a room to life. And usually, that included a variety of beautiful plants and even small, indoor trees. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Just a few potted perennials and maybe some ferns or a ficus could cozy up even a now rundown place like this. But she was getting ahead of herself. For her to even consider being Eda’s interior decorator, she and her friends first had to find them. And that started with the rooms upstairs. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Willow swung open one of the doors, which promptly fell off its hinges and landed flat on the ground with a solid thud. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You okay up there?” She heard Gus call from below. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah I’m good! The door fell!” She called back. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A quick glance around told her that they had gotten to this room as well. Drawers were open, clothes were scattered all over, and a bunch of random items were thrown around. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She picked up one of the pieces of fabric laying on the ground. It wasn’t clothing; it looked more like a blanket of some sort. She grabbed a small metal rung and rubbed it between her fingers. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was a flag. A flag with a blue, purple, and pink color gradient to it. She smiled and placed it down, finding a very familiar looking cat ear hoodie lying on the ground underneath it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Well, at least that answered the question of whose room this was. So maybe Luz had some kind of secret message hidden in here. Something that she would be able to hide in plain sight but wouldn’t be obvious enough for anyone who didn’t know her to pick up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Come on, Luz. Work with me here...” Willow muttered to herself as she picked the hoodie up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity kicked some stray pieces of glass scattered in front of the basement door to the side. She turned the handle and opened the door, which let out a long high pitched creak as it swung out. Rows of torches lined the stairwell down, with only a few which were lit up, casting an eerie intermittent chain of light among darkness. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As she made her way down the stairs, high pitched squeaks erupting with each step, she began to imagine the secrets confined within the walls of the Owl Lady’s basement. She could have a library of the most dangerous spells and potions, ones which have long since been outlawed; a huge pit housing the Boiling Isle’s most deadly creatures, or even a storage room of bodies and body parts forcefully torn from their previous owners...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Well, maybe not that creepy. Hopefully. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As she took the final step onto the basement floor, Amity could see the room a lot clearer than from her perch through the living room floor. And it was- not quite what she was expecting. Whether that was good or bad, she couldn’t quite yet tell.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Aside from the obvious ransacking and holes in the ceiling above her, it was actually a quaint little place. Something which really surprised her, given Eda’s track record of crime and recklessness. There was a half circle desk where she assumed Eda did brewing, due to its close proximity to the fire ring and some of the contents which were still on it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity walked up to the old wooden desk and ran her hands over it. There were a few dents and chips missing, but who wouldn’t expect that from an ancient looking piece of craftsmanship like this. A few bottles were haphazardly laying about atop the table. She picked one up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“C.J.” Amity mumbled to herself. “Whatever that means.” She placed it back down and picked up another bottle. “Witch’s Inhibitory Neural Extract.” She sighed. “Maybe if we can’t find anything.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The young witch placed that bottle back as well, beginning to pan through some of the papers which were carelessly thrown about. Unfortunately, all paging through those got her was some pickpocketing tips, a paper cut, and what looked to be a recipe for something called “enchiladas”; which, by the looks of it, was one of Luz’s favorite foods.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Maybe not all unfortunate.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But still, there was no sign of where they took off to. Amity slipped the recipe sheet into her inside shirt pocket as she made her way behind the table and towards the back of the room. She took a long look at the basement which was now fully in front of her, trying to note any spots which weren’t touched by whoever was down here last looking for clues. Or just destroying shit. At this point that discrepancy was yet to be made. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What she saw was items thrown into corners, piles of paper interspersed throughout the floor, torches broken off the sides and thrown around, and a perfectly good reclining chair upside down against the wall. But nothing looked like it was untouched. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She sighed and ran her hand through her green and brown interlacing tresses. This wasn’t right. There was no way that Eda would leave without some kind of explanation. There was no way that </span>
  <em>
    <span>Luz</span>
  </em>
  <span> would leave without any explanation. They were missing something, but the only question was what. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lost deep in thought, Amity blankly stared down her shadow being cast by the torch beside her. It was interesting to think about sometimes, the fact that the ground where her shadow was is lighter despite being darker. Lighter in weight that is. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was one of Luz’s rants that she was on one day. She was going on about this one guy named after a type of sauce who did science videos in the human realm. She was saying that light was made out of these tiny light particles called photons, and that each individual photon had a certain weight to it when moving, but weirdly not when stopped.  And because there weren’t any of those photons on the area where her shadow was, that area weighed less, if only by super small amount. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her shadow swayed back and forth as her smile grew, thinking about the weird things that humans questioned to even begin finding that stuff out. Well, maybe just one human in particular. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Wait. My shadow shouldn’t be swaying like that. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Amity thought to herself. She looked at the torch next to her and then at one of the others flickering further away. She backed away from the wall. The torch next to her was moving a whole lot more than the other one a few meters away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She popped her finger into her mouth, making sure to get it nice and wet before sticking it up into the air. It got cool on the one side. There was a draft. In a basement with no windows. At the very opposite end of the room from the stairs. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re no owl, Eda. You’re a fox. A very crafty one.” Amity smiled to herself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She began knocking on every other brick along the back wall. One after another she tapped on them, just waiting to hear something different than the sound of echoless solid brick. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After what felt like an eternity, and truly being all of two minutes, there was an open echo coming from behind one of the pieces she had just tapped on. A satisfied grin graced her lips as she tapped a few surrounding pieces, trying to get a feel for how large the door was. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity stepped back a few paces and drew a purple spell circle in front of her. “Abomination, rise!” She commanded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>An average sized purple shaded goop monster rose out from the ground in front of her. “Abomination, break down that wall.” She pointed to the center of the area she had just mentally mapped out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With a loud groan the abomination shot off and barreled towards Eda’s basement wall. It collided against it with a loud thud and subsequent echoing from behind the area of contact. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The abomination backed up to its summoned location and tried ramming against the wall once more. But again to no avail. Three, four, and five more times the abomination collided with the location Amity pointed to, still failing to damage anything. It backed up twice as far this time, but before it could start, Amity summoned another abomination, giving it the same command as the first. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The second monster moved to where the first was. With a groan to each other, the abominations took off towards the wall, barreling towards it like an unstoppable freight train. However, this time contact with the wall actually did something. The door caved in under the combined force of Amity’s abominations, dropping over with a deafening, echoing thud. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dust was kicked up from all around the site of impact, obstructing any clear view of the other side. Amity covered her nose and mouth with the inside of her shirt. She twirled her wrist around, and with a simple spell, her abominations were gone. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity peered through the opening she just created, waiting patiently for the dust to settle. After a minute passed she could see the light at the end of the tunnel, literally and figuratively. And that was either a tiny opening, or it would be a hike to get there. Either way, she had to tell the others. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She ran back to where a few of the floorboards in the ceiling were missing. “Willow! Gus! I think I found something!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus peeked over the lip down to her, shortly followed by Willow. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well you’re not the only one.” Willow smiled. She waived a small piece of slightly charred paper in front of her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After all the stress she had been going through with the mysterious disappearance of her- best friend, Amity could finally feel a grin tugging at the corners of her lips. “That’s great news, Willow. Now come on down, I can’t bring this to you both.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Willow and Gus made their way downstairs where they saw Amity waiting at the opposite end of the basement, next to a witch sized hole, waiving them over. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ugh.” Gus pinched his nose closed. “This place smells awful! It’s like the perfume lane in the marketplace.” He said in a nasally voice. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s not that bad, Gus.” Willow patted her friend on the back. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I didn’t even notice.” Amity chimed in. “But that’s not important. Check this out.” She walked into the opening her abomination made earlier.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now that everything had settled down it was much easier to get a clear look at what she had stumbled upon. A long and fairly dark tunnel extended hundreds of yards away, with a dim light as the focusing point.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity took a whiff of her surroundings as she set foot in the erdstall; a stagnant jungle aroma enveloped her every fiber, and it was more invigorating than she could have ever imagined. They had to be on the brink of finding Luz. They just had to. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Come on! We can read that letter after we check out the light at the end of the tunnel!” Amity called back to her companions. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Amity, I think you should take a look at this first.” Willow contested. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“There’s light down at the end there, we can read it when we get out of here.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Amity, I think Willow is right.” Gus had just finished reading the paper and was holding it out for Amity to grab. While there was nothing he wanted more than to help find his lost friend, there was a certain point at which efforts should be halted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Every bone in her body was telling her to just head towards the end of the tunnel; that reading over that little slip of paper was a bad idea and was something she should avoid at all costs. She wanted to ignore her friends and push on, because there was no way she would ever give up on finding Luz. She would never turn her back on her; especially not now being she was on the run as a criminal associate from Emperor Belos. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If he would end up reaching her before she did, well- that might just spell the end of Luz Noceda. And that wasn’t going to happen while she was still alive and kicking. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But amidst all the mental pain and turmoil that she was putting herself through, what with continuously imagining the death of her cru- erm, </span>
  <em>
    <span>friend</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Amity absentmindedly grabbed the piece of paper in Gus’ outstretched arm. She looked down and pursed her lips together; </span>
  <em>
    <span>it’s only one piece of paper</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought to herself, </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll read it over real quick then we can get back to the business at hand</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She twisted it towards her and gave it a shake to get the folds out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>To one of the two people I’m sure found this,</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m okay. I may not be </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>okay </em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>okay, but I’ll be safe from whatever’s chasing us right now. Eda has a safe place far away from the reach of anyone who would dare get this close to grabbing us. It’s a nightmare to get to, and I’m sure the stomach churning ride with Eda to get there will have kept anyone following us off our scent. Just know that I’ll be okay, but you all have to promise me one thing: do </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>not </em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>come after us. It’s dangerous and the last thing I want is to endanger the people I love. I’ll be back, but you’re just going to have to wait for me, otherwise things will probably turn sour. Like warheads extract sour, even though I’m sure you have no clue what those are. I’ll have to get some for you guys then. But as I’m here frantically scribbling down these last few words before we leave, I just want to say that I have a very important question to ask once I get back. And again, don’t try to find me. It’s not safe and I’ll be back soon. After all, I have the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles to help protect me. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>See you guys soon!</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Luz &lt;3</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity blinked once. Then two more times, just staring at the words in front of her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No. No no no. She couldn’t have. She could </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>not </em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>have done that. Does she really think that I won’t drop everything and try to find her? </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>Because I will!</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span> I deserve more answers than that! I can’t just-</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Amity!” Willow shook her childhood best friend. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Huh?” She asked, coming out of her daze. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I called your name like, three times. You okay?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Uh, yeah... Yeah I’m fine.” She puckered her lips and took a deep breath. She stuffed the letter into her pocket and brushed the debris off her shirt. Now wasn’t the time to get overly emotional and freeze up like a naked witch on top of The Knee. Sure, Eda was with her, and who better than that? Well, besides herself... It’d be just the two of them. Alone. Out in the middle of nowhere; nobody around to bother them or catch them while they-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Focus.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This was proving to be futile. Every rational thought which racked her mind was thrown aback by Luz. It was infuriating considering all she wanted to do find her, and the very thought of her was inhibiting that. Amity would just have to buckle down and try her damnedest to focus on the task at hand. And currently, that’s finding out where this secret passage leads. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We should get moving and see what’s down there.” Amity said, conjuring a light spell to illuminate the darkness. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Willow and Gus gave each other a hesitant glance but ultimately pronounced their agreement and followed Amity through the tunnel. It was by far the dingiest thing they found in Eda’s house, and lucky for them they only got dripped on a few times by the leaky overhead. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The farther they walked the more apparent a consistent rumbling noise became. It almost sounded like the roar of a river, but that didn’t seem right. They had been coming to Eda’s house for years and never once had they seen any indication that there was a river around. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The three of them shielded their eyes as they crested the border between light and dark. Amity stopped just short of the edge of the cliff and peered over. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was a beautiful waterfall emptying down into a crystal clear body of water. And the way the sun casted down upon it, a plethora of rainbows danced in the open air in front of them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll have to remember this as a possible first date spot.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Amity smiled to herself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Almost forgetting that she was currently on a mission, Amity snapped out of her generating daydream. She looked back for her friends but saw nothing but solid cliff face. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s a solid illusion spell. No wonder she considers herself the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles.” Gus attested to Eda’s handiwork as he and Willow came out from behind the wall. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You know that was an illusion from behind it? We couldn’t even see it.” Willow asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, when you’re this good at illusion magic, nothing sneaks by you.” Gus confidently answered. While Eda was a top tier witch, he still considered himself to be a master of illusion. And a master can always recognize a piece of quality craftsmanship when he sees it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity tolled her eyes. “Well, this really doesn’t lead to anywhere besides a nice venue. And I don’t see any other caves or anything connected to this place. Do you see anything, oh </span>
  <em>
    <span>master of illusion</span>
  </em>
  <span>?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gus puckered his lips and walked up to the edge. With both his hands he casted a large spell circle in front of him and pushed it outwards. Once it reached the center of the inlet he balled his hands up and twisted them inward. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The spell circle condensed into a ball of bright, baby blue light, and began pulsing out waves of energy. The bands expanded out in a full sphere, making contact with all of the surfaces surrounding it. The only thing which reacted to it was the portion of wall which was cast by Eda, which flashed a similar color to the energy ball. Everything else remained nonfluorescent. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Looks like the only thing here which doesn’t naturally belong here is this illusion behind us. If they did escape this way there’s no telling which way they went from here.” Gus concluded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Great</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Amity thought to herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>First the note and now this. She definitely doesn’t want to be found, that’s for sure.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey.” Willow places a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “She’ll be okay. You just have to trust that her and Eda, and King, can take care of themselves. They’ll be back.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She appreciated the effort from Willow, she really did, but it still wasn’t good enough. And now she reached a dead end. All she really could do now was to try and assure herself that it wouldn’t be too long before they returned, otherwise she’d go completely against Luz’s wishes and that was the last thing she wanted to do. She just had to keep her mind busy in the meantime. Maybe training would help that. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amity let out a puff of air and gave her friend a crooked, forced smile. “Yeah...” She held her fists tightly to her legs and muttered to herself. “They have to...”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>Eda took a deep, nasally breath as she, King and Luz passed the border between water and land. “Ah! Don’t you just love the scent of sticky fingers in the morning?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Only when they’re covered in that delicious waffle topping that Luz brought from Earth.” King answered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s barbecue sauce. Not a waffle topping.” Luz corrected. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, it works with your waffles too. Not just whatever a barby-cue is.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz rolled her eyes and smiled at the King of, currently, breakfast. At least from his perspective he was. She rubbed him on the head and he let out a weh in response. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz peered down over the countryside they were currently flying over. The rolling auburn hillside gently crept into the dense forest which bordered it. Flocks of birds were perched happily singing on the treetops as some quadruped wildlife dashed and weaved throughout the woodland floor. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was so much more peaceful and quiet out here than it was back in Bonesborough. So why did this place get such a bad rep?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As though the mystical forces of nature had somehow heard her private thoughts, Luz got the answer to her question in the form of a large burning projectile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hang on!” Eda called out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In that moment time seemed to slow to a halt. A massive red fireball rapidly rose into Luz’s view from her seat behind Eda. She white knuckle grasped Eda’s staff, just as King dug his claws into the hardwood. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda twisted and dove underneath the incoming attack, narrowly avoiding a crispy demise. She looked down and around to find a group of five witches huddled together drawing a spell circle on the ground. They completed it and stepped back as another raging fireball was huddled up into the air on a crash course for them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh great.” Eda muttered, rolling her eyes. “Locals.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Edaaa!” Luz cried out from behind her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hang on, kid!” Eda had a devilishly confident grin plastered on her face as she began to bank right, high above the Neanderthals below. Her curved trajectory was mildly interrupted by a few more fireballs, each missing contact by only a few feet. Within moments they were back where Eda first started curving, meeting up with the beginning of a large, aerial spell circle. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Time for you guys to </span>
  <em>
    <span>chill out</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” Eda called down to the hotheads. With the spell complete, a burst of sky blue light illuminated their backs as they sped off. A thick, heavy coating of snow materialized from her circle, plummeting towards the ground below. It landed on the witches attacking them with a loud, satisfying thud. One which gave Eda a sense of pure joy. Nobody messed with her family. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She looked back to see her passengers continuing to cling on to the staff for dear life, despite her flawless handling of the situation. “You two can loosen your grip now. Fun’s all over. One little spell and they’re all </span>
  <em>
    <span>on ice</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” Eda snorted and snickered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It wasn’t funny the first time and it’s not funny now!” King yelled over the high winds breezing by them. Despite their lack of immediate danger, his claws were still safely tucked into the wood of Eda’s staff. And if she had claws too, Luz would have them dug in just as deep. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, what do you know? Nobody calls you the King of jokes.” Eda waived a hand at King. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’d have a comeback to that if I wasn’t so preoccupied with the possibility of </span>
  <em>
    <span>dying</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” He called back. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With that, Eda eased up on the throttle just a bit, back to a more comfortable cruising speed. Following her deceleration, King and Luz loosened their grip and sat a bit more leisurely. Not that there was any true leisure with Eda behind the palisman. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After a few more minutes of flying, Luz spoke up. “So, where is this place exactly? You’ve always been so cryptic about it and I’m actually pretty excited to see what it looks like!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Knowing her it’s probably chock full of random shiny junk. Either that or old teen beauty magazines.” King said. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll have you know that this place is top of the line! All the best traps, cloaks and intellectual reading material a witch could ever ask for!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, we’ll see about that.” King answered, the disbelief in his voice ever so prominent. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t too much longer before Eda began her descent. Just like the Owl House, Eda’s secret bunker was nestled away in a far off section of the forest, surrounded by massive hills on all four sides. In fact, there was only one small opening in the canopy to which they were able to fly in, and if you weren’t looking for it, you’d miss it. They dove through the opening and under the canopy, landing just a few meters from the entrance at the base of the trees.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The three hopped off Eda’s staff and she packed it up into her bag. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yes, it was just as she had left it all those years ago. Unscathed by the tainting touch of troublesome trespassers. At least, the spell which rendered it invisible to the naked eye seemed to be holding up. With a flick of her wrist, Eda dropped the camouflage on her hideout and disarmed the traps leading up to it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t much, but it was still a place to call home until they could get everything straightened out back at their real home. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It looked similar to a wooden cabin on the outside. Logs were stacked horizontally in a rectangular shape with a small offshoot jetting out perpendicular to the rest of it. It raised up two stories, coming to a point at the apex of the second floor. It looked like there should only be an attic section on the second floor. There were a few windows scattered throughout the place and a small porch with a solid awning covering it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There were plenty of small plants surrounding the entrance and meandering their way up the sides of the cabin and onto the roof where they intermingled into a plexus of vibrant hues. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh my gosh, Eda! This place is sooo cute! I never imagined a secret cabin in the woods to have such a </span>
  <em>
    <span>beautiful</span>
  </em>
  <span> design!” Luz fawned over the little place, certainly more than she was expecting to. And while Eda did a decent job at keeping the Owl House in working order, sometimes Luz really questioned the decorating skills of her mentor. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This was not one of those times. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, well, what can I say? Everyone would want to take a peek inside if they knew the yard looked like that. That’s why you don’t see me prancing about calling attention to it.” She winked at Luz. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, as much as I </span>
  <em>
    <span>love</span>
  </em>
  <span> hearing about Eda’s front yard, that trip scared the hell out of me. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Me</span>
  </em>
  <span>, the Kind of Demons! So if you need me, I’ll be inside on the comfiest surface taking a 12 hour power nap.” King trotted up time the door and swung it open, leaving it ajar for the witches behind him who followed his footsteps. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The inside mirrored the outside almost to a tee. There were plants and flowers roaming every which way. Some on the ceiling, walls and even portions of the floor, like under some of the furniture. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There were two large chairs located on either side of a large, cushy couch which King was currently testing out for optimal snooze potential. In front of the arrangement was a small hardwood table which separated the seats from a small wood fueled fireplace. A few floor lamps in the corners and some shelves with various books and pictures rounded out the room. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Eda! It’s like a mini forest inside too!” Luz swooned over the beautiful display of nature brought inside.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Heh... Yeah... I always figured you would like it here.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’ve </span>
  <em>
    <span>got</span>
  </em>
  <span> to teach me some of what you know about plants and decorating. I bet I could even show Willow a few things after you show me!” Luz had the biggest, dopiest grin plastered on her face. She loved the idea of learning something new, especially when she could then go and share it with her friends. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda made her way through the living room and into the kitchen. She ran her finger across the kitchen countertop and brought it up to eye level. She rubbed her finger and thumb together, causing the clumped particles of dust to fall to the ground. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This place has been abandoned for years, but by the looks of it, only the inside was not tended to. Probably thought they were all dead- or worse. But why only do the outside? After a few moments it seemed inconsequential, and she brushed off the thought like a thin layer of dust. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright you freeloaders, listen up. We may not be at the Owl House, but there’s still chores to be done. This place hasn’t been cleaned in years, and as much as I like sleeping in dirt and trash treasure, I don’t feel like having an absurd amount of it just lying around all willy nilly. So let’s go! Grab a broom or dust rag and get to it!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A simultaneous groan came from Luz and King, the latter of who had just managed to find the perfect spot on a fuzzy blanket which was stuffed into a basket next to the fireplace. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz reluctantly grabbed a broom that was propped up on the wall near a door, and began working her way through the living room. King followed suit after a few strings of complaints and insults were quietly thrown towards Eda. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe now that I’m back here I’ll be able to find out a little more about what the hell is going on. Or at least collect my thoughts and figure out how I can even begin to attempt stopping it</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Eda picked up a picture off a nearby mantle and blew the dust off it. She sighed. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Lily, you’ve got to help me with this one</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda placed the picture down and walked over to where Luz got the broom, picking up a rag and a spray bottle. She could start fixing this mess tomorrow. For now, all she wanted to do was clean up a little and go to bed. It’s been an absolute shitshow of a day. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After about an hour of cleaning up, the cabin seemed to be in good enough shape to call it quits. Eda wiped the sweat forming on her brow and flung it off. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright you two, that’s enough for now. I don’t want to be here terribly long so this’ll do.” Eda placed her rag and bottle back down and walked back to the kitchen. She rooted through the shelves, pantry and cooler, and much to her expectations, there wasn’t much of anything to be found. A few cans of Spum seemed to be all that was edible. And even that was pushing it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With a heavy sigh she pulled the few cans out and grabbed a couple utensils. She made her way to the sink and turned the water on. At first it came out brown and reeking of rotten eggs, but cleared up after a minute or so. She gave the utensils a quick wash, then grabbed a few cups and filled them up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright you two, dinner is served.” Eda called out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz and King shuffled their way over to her and plopped down at the dining table. Eda placed the cans, utensils and glasses in front of each of them. “Bone apple tea!” She gestured with a wave of showmanship. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s bon appétit, Eda.” Luz corrected with a smile. “But a lot of people from Earth mess that one up too, so, good job!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Really? Well that’s just dumb. At least with mine you’re saying what you get.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wait. Is this tea made from bones and apples?” Luz asked, horrified, pushing the glass ever so slightly away from her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nah. That’s just water mixed with various who knows what from the well and pipes, since it hasn’t been run in forever.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And what is this goop? It smells </span>
  <em>
    <span>awful</span>
  </em>
  <span>. This is no meal for a king! I demand a meal made from the flesh of my enemies!” King slammed his paw on the table, which sounded more like a soft pat. “Or at least something that won’t outlive me...”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah...” Eda agreed with a sigh. “It’s not the greatest option, but it’s all we got for now. We have to go into town tomorrow anyway, so we can stop at the market and grab some actual food there.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz took a small bite of the preservative laced chunk of- stuff, in front of her. The instant it touched her tongue she gagged and nearly spit it back out. However, much to her own body’s dismay, she bit into it and continued chewing the squishy fake meat, eventually managing to force it down her throat. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That glass of stagnant water was looking very refreshing now. She nearly lunges for it, chugging the contents before coughing some of it back up into the cup. She slammed the cup down onto the table and quickly wiped her tongue on her sleeve, desperately trying to rid her mouth of that gritty, metallic taste. Sadly to no avail. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda snorted and tried to stifle a laugh which was bubbling up afterwards. Try as she might, it wasn’t enough, and as the metaphorical dam broke, a wave of laughter rushed over her. Not far behind, King got sucked into his own laughing fit. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You- the look- oh man!” Eda managed to get only a few coherent words out between her laughs. After a few moments she wiped a tear from her eye, finally calming down enough to articulate a proper sentence. “Oh, kid. After the hell we’ve been through today, I really needed that pick me up. Your face was priceless!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well I’m glad I could brighten your day with a bit of my own misery.” Luz deadpanned, still trying to spit out the nasty remnants. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Cheer up, Luz!” King chirped. “Soon enough we’ll be causing the misery of other people, and that’s when all three of us get to feel the same as I do now!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luz cocked an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It means-“ Eda chimed in, “that we’re going to do a little digging as to why those Emperor’s Coven goons went after me like King does to that hand held red dot projector of yours.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That thing is </span>
  <em>
    <span>evil</span>
  </em>
  <span>! It taunts you like the ghosts of your past, picking at every last emotional wound you’ve ever received; grinding your sanity to the bone, until you end up screaming yourself awake from the constant nightmares which never cease their bombardment of your inner soul!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda and Luz short concerned glances from King to each other, then back to King. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Plus I’m stubborn and I won’t rest until I capture it!” King tacked on. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uh huh...” Eda drug out. “Well, now that I think about it, mo- uh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> might have some leftover apple blood in the cellar. I’ll be right back.” She got up and pushed her chair into its unoccupied position in one fell swoop. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda went over to the cellar door and pulled it open, eliciting a loud creek. She began her descent, the clicking of her boots overlapping with the high pitched squeaks of the stairs with each step. The farther down she went the darker it got, until there was nothing but pitch black. With a flick of her wrist, the Owl Lady cast a small light spell, summoning a miniature ball of light which began to follow her around. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>Now where would she have kept that stuff?” Eda muttered to herself. She looked around the fairly dark cellar but saw nothing besides cobwebs, empty shelves, and the occasional rodent scurrying across the floor. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With another swift motion, Eda cast a second spell circle, this time one that pulsed with a light blue hue. She took around her, looking for anything out of the ordinary, when a rectangular flash of green caught her eye. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Aha!” She called out, taking a few strides over to the glowing light. With another pulse of the spell, the area under the floorboards pulsed green. “She never could keep this thing hidden from me. No matter how hard she tried.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda drew one more spell circle in the air, raising the area beneath the floorboards up a few feet. She hunched down and pulled at one of the bottles, removing it from its holster. “Commander Morzohn’s Apple Blood. Oh how I’ve missed you.” She smirked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As she was getting ready to close the secret compartment, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She bent back down and grabbed hold of a small square of paper which was attached to the side of the container, and pulled it out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There in the picture were three red headed kids. But not just any kids, one was her. And Lilith. But who was the third? He was a boy, that much was certain. And the youngest of them all by the looks of it. But for the life of her, she couldn’t remember who he was. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Summer ‘87.” Eda mumbled to herself, reading the writing at the bottom of the picture. She glazed her thumb over the words, hoping to bring some kind of clarity forward. But there was nothing. Was he some kind of distant relative? A family friend who she basically ignored and easily forgot? Wouldn’t be the first time. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suddenly there was a loud bang from above, followed by a fit of two distinctly pitched giggles. Eda sighed, at least they were having a bit of fun now. Without dwelling on it too much more, Eda closed the apple blood container and stashed the picture into her inside pocket. There would be plenty of time to investigate the mystery kid later. Now, she just wanted to be with her family, before anything else decides to happen. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She reached the top of the stairs and flicked away the artificial lighting. As she closed the door, another loud creek drew the attention of her giggling demon and owlet. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Owlet? Where’d that come from?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No matter, they both perked up when they saw the glistening glass bottle in Eda’s hand. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh Titan, is that Commander Morzohn’s? That’s some top tier stuff there, Eda! How’d you manage to get that?” King questioned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You should know just how resourceful I can be.” Eda cracked a smile and twirled the bottle. She placed it on the table and grabbed a bottle opener from the kitchen. With a quick screw and a pop, the top opened up and she poured herself, King and Luz a glass. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The little square in her pocket was burning a hole in her jacket, and no matter how hard she tried, the thought of it continued to plague her mind. But at least right now there was a wonderful enough distraction in front of her to keep her sane. And there was Luz and King too...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She smiled at her own poor attempt of a joke and took a sip of her drink. Now wasn’t the time for worry. She could, and would, always do that later. With a deep sigh she let herself relax into the calming, charming conversation in front of her, with the two people she was closest to. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Another sip as she watched Luz make dramatic hand gestures at King who pumped his fist in response. Eda chuckled and swirled her drink before placing it down on the table. Slamming her own hand on the table and taking an overly dramatic, commanding pose, she joined into the conversation and began what went on to be a long, laughter filled evening. </span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>A flat black heel dug into the barren dirt road within the dense forest, leaving a small divot in its wake. While the birds were singing their joyous songs, serenading the crisp morning air with a luscious, harmonious symphony, there was a much bleaker outlook on the forest floor. </span>
  <span>Specifically for Lilith Clawthorne, who was en route to her sister’s humble abode; one which was ransacked what felt like an eternity ago, if you were to consider an eternity being within a twenty four hour timeframe. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She approached the front door, or lack thereof, an intermittent crunching noise coming from underneath her boot with each step she took. Lilith grabbed hold of the splintering doorframe, which was only half present, and carefully made her way through the entrance. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She was hoping that when she set foot into her sister’s home it would be due to some sort of heartfelt invitation extended to her. Some kind of reconciliation where Eda would have dropped her wild ways and finally embraced what it means to be a part of the greatest coven on the Boiling Isles. At least, what she hoped to be so. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Or, if nothing else, just to have a civil conversation. Something where they could just talk to each other about their daily hardships and make jokes and reflect on the good ole days over a stiff bottle of the Captain’s Apple Blood. It was their favorite, after all. Must’ve gotten that from mom. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But alas, here she was, once again uninvited and seeking answers which were being held hostage by her sister. The only good thing to come out of this entire </span>
  <span>situation is that the infuriating bird tube Edalyn called a house demon was no longer present to get in her way. He had won enough rounds, but now she had the final laugh. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lilith gave a rough tap to the doorframe for good measure. And maybe to ease her emotional rousing just a bit. Nothing too personal, right?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Get it together, Lilith. You’re here for a reason.” She muttered to herself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Creeky floorboards and a ton of broken glass were strewn about the entirety of the living room. Furniture was moved and flipped, mantles were torn down, and picture frames were tossed around like a tornado whipped through the place. In all senses of the word, this house was a disaster. There were even floorboards torn up. Some allowing ample viewing of the basement. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lilith rolled her eyes, ashamed that the elite squadron of the Emperor’s Coven would leave such a horrid mess after “searching” a house. And she used that term lightly. Apparently they didn’t know that keeping an organized home allowed for simplistic identification. And even if this wasn’t the most organized home to begin with, they made it so much more difficult for themselves by doing things the messy way. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s no wonder all they came back with was the house demon. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hopefully they didn’t turn her room into something like this.” Lilith commented to herself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If her sister were to have left anything of importance for anyone to find, it had to have been in one of two places. Either in her own room, or workstation. At least, that’s always where she used to hide anything important when they were children, even though Lilith always ended up finding her stuff anyway. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For instance, it was doubtful that Eda would ever forgive her for reading her 9th grade diary and pulling a prank on her biggest crush. Not just the crush of the week, but of the entire month. It was unheard of for her to be interested in a single boy for such a long period of time. But after that fateful day, Alador never looked at her the same way. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was a twinge of guilt in her chest, but it was nothing she could afford to dwell on. Right now what she needed was a clue as to where her sister could have hidden something away so that nobody but herself could find it. Somewhere where Eda could leave open communication and feel safe in the knowledge that nobody but her would be able to find it. Somewhere only a Clawthorne would look. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But she wasn’t going to figure out that location down here. Not to mention the suspected hiding place would be up in her sister’s room, probably stashed using countless layers of illusion spells.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Or maybe that would be too predictable. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lilith shook her head, there wasn’t enough time to have a full blown internal debate. She made her way to the ascending staircase and began making her way to the second floor. Luckily for her there seemed to be a lack of glass scattered there, so no sliced hands in case she fell. Not that she would. Only children fell walking up stairs. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As she crested the final step, Lilith took one extra step thinking there was one more level to her climb. As her foot came down onto nothing, her blood pressure spiked and her chest clenched up as though she were in a giant’s grasp. With a slight gasp her heel dropped to the floor and she looked around to make sure nobody was around. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right.” She said in a low whisper. “That never happened.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lilith peeked her head through a few doorways, checking to see their content. After passing a few rooms she finally stumbled across the one she was looking for. Eda’s room. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She opened the door up nice and wide, taking a few steps in. The place looked like a wreck. Bane and his goons sure had a nice time tearing the place apart because Eda’s room looked just as bad as the rest of the house. Maybe even a little worse. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Again there was glass on the floor, an unfortunate running theme, her sister’s nest was torn apart, there were clothes scattered all over the floor and on the furniture, and there was a pungent odor which she could easily identify as Bane’s not-so-subtle rip off cologne, which he claims he pays top dollar for. Unsurprisingly, it lingers like a bad rep. A perfect match if you were to ask her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lilith began turning through the strewn pages of paper which were haphazardly thrown about the room. Maybe there was some kind of hidden message in them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shoplifting schedule- no. Hit list- no. Human dietary restrictions- no. Ugh. Come on Edalyn, give me some kind of sign as to where you put it.” Lilith ground her teeth together, her nerves beginning to fester. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her eyes darted from the notes to the floor, then to the nest, and back to the table. Eda may have been bull headed and a little reckless, well, a lot reckless, but if there was one thing she wasn’t, it was dumb. There had to be a way for someone to contact her. Some kind of beacon-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Wait</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A beacon. A beacon of light. Ever since they were kids, Eda had always been fascinated by bright, shining, shimmering objects. Lilith’s eyes glazed over the desk contents, landing on a small pen laying on the table. A blue, plastic encased pen with a large pink diamond safely nestled on top to be precise. She grabbed the pen and held it up to eye level, rotating it to get a good look at all the sides. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lilith clicked the pen, and just as she was hoping, the pink diamond at the top lit up, illuminating her hand and facial features in a rosy pink hue. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Well</span>
  </em>
  <span>... Lilith thought to herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>It has all the makings of a good hiding place. Small, noticeable yet inconspicuous, and enough room on the inside to hide something. So let’s take a look at what you may be hiding, Edalyn</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With a swift snap of her fingers Lilith broke the pen in half with a satisfying snap, small bits of plastic dropping to the tabletop and ground. She pulled the two broken halves apart from each other, and lo and behold, there was a small piece of parchment wrapped up hugging the internal surface of the pen shaft. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lilith smirked. She plucked the small piece of paper from its hidden holster and unfurled it. From the looks of it this wasn’t anything which was recently placed here. The ink was slightly faded, the paper it was on seemed to be spotted in a few locations, and it was also dated three years ago. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not exactly what I was hoping for, but I suppose beggars can’t be choosers. Why was this hidden away, sister?” Lilith started reading, and what she read over seemed impossible. She read it once more, even more confused than before.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Impossible...” She finally muttered to herself. “Surely this must be a joke. Some kind of cruel trick you’re playing.” Lilith gritted her teeth and crumpled the small piece of paper, heavily debating on burning it to a crisp right then and there. After a few seconds at odds with herself, she reluctantly stuffed the paper into her pocket and walked out Eda’s room, slamming the door behind her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She made her way downstairs, determination flaring up in her eyes. The note may be three years old, but even the consideration of that place wasn’t a decision to be taken lightly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If Eda had actually gone to Gastrow, then her situation may be much worse than she had originally thought. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lilith pulled out her staff as she crossed the wasteland of glass and debris, having it extend to its full size. The moment she traversed the broken doorframe, Lilith tossed her staff out in front of her where it came to a halt and floated above the ground. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She hopped on side-saddle, and as if it read her mind, the palisman took off in a gust of wind, kicking up a plume of dirt beneath it. Lilith gripped the shaft of her staff with one hand and drew up a sky blue spell circle with the other. As soon as the circle was completed she disappeared from sight. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eda always had the most unconventional way of going about things, but even she couldn’t be that desperate to go back there. It did not make any logical sense to go back to that wretched place. Well, that is unless the circumstances were critically dire. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And that was exactly what she was afraid of.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <b>ohshush: So glad you like it! It’ll definitely be back.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>thatlesbiannerd: I didn’t know that and it’s fixed. I appreciate the heads up. And I hope you enjoyed this chapter if you’re still reading!</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>allenVth: She’s totally getting her own palisman lol. And I have some fun plans for the ring!</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>HiYouGuys: It’s updated right now! And there will certainly be more to come. Glad you’re enjoying it!</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>LazuliRose: I’m glad you liked it! I have Luz’s palisman laid out so it’ll be coming. I appreciate all the feedback; it really helps!</b>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Plans</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Nyugh." Eda groaned as she struggled to crack one golden eye open. The bright morning light was tearing through the open window of her bedroom, burning a hole straight through her eyelids to her retinas. She held her hand over her eyes. "It should be illegal for the sun to come up before noon." She grumbled.</p><p>Okay. Bright sun, <em>check</em>. Hangover from having a little too much fun with those two yahoos last night, <em>check</em>. She turned to her nightstand. Bottle of potion so she doesn't turn into a mindless, yet objectively adorable, hell raising demon? <em>Not check. Not check</em>? Where was it? Hold on. Where was her nightstand? Where was anything? Where was <em>she</em>?</p><p>"Oh right. This old dump." She muttered to herself. "And there's not a single bottle of my potion anywhere even remotely near here. Ugh." She rubbed her temples in a desperate attempt to subdue the crescendoing headache coming on. "Well, if we didn't have to go into town before, we certainly do now. The last thing I want is another target on my back from unintentional town-wide havoc."</p><p>Eda threw the sheets off of herself and pivoted upright. She swung her legs out of bed and took a quick glance down at herself. She couldn't help but snort. "Still in my clothes from yesterday. Heh. I don't think I've been able to tell how much is too much for at least a decade now." She frowned. "Titan I'm old."</p><p>She stretched her arms out wide into the air, letting out a small satisfied moan in the process, right before a wave of pain washed over her head. She seethed and rubbed her temples once more. "Yeah, I'm going to need some water and more of that apple blood. Or maybe some tea… That was good stuff."</p><p>The Owl Lady pushed herself to her feet as the bed decompressed underneath her. She looked down at her dress and tried to rub out some of the wrinkles which were embedded in it, ultimately to no avail. With a shrug she was on her way downstairs to see if either of the other two were up yet. And if she had to put money on it, there would probably be at least one chipper face down there. Well, maybe not so chipper. She did have about three quarters of a bottle herself, and who knows how that stuff affects humans.</p><p>Eda peered around the corner to find her apprentice laying on the couch, cocked up with one foot over the backrest reading a magazine. She looked completely at peace, like she didn't have a care in the world. Eda would have anything to get back to that truly carefree state of mind again. Well, she paused, she'd give up <em>almost</em> anything. A smile graced her lips as she stepped down the last few stairs.</p><p>That final step must have been just loud enough to pull Luz from her reading because she lowered the magazine just a bit and peered over towards her mentor.</p><p>"Eda!" Luz smiled, her warming grin spreading from ear to ear. "You're finally awake! I wasn't sure how long you were going to be out for. You seemed pretty far gone by the time you went to bed." She started to giggle, eliciting a deadpan look from the Owl Lady.</p><p>"Oh please," she waived Luz off and jabbed a thumb at herself "I can handle my apple blood better than any other witch on the Boiling Isles. You know, I was crowned Post-Grom Queen because of my natural ability to ward off those delectable poisons."</p><p>"Post-Grom queen? There wasn't anything that happened after Grom any of the times while I've been at Hexside." Luz cocked her head. Sure, her and her friends hung out after Grom was over and had been defeated, but there wasn't anything formal like that done at Hexside like they had on Earth.</p><p>"Well…" Eda begrudgingly began, "that may or may not be partly to do with me, kiddo."</p><p>"Eda…" Luz began, calling her out like she was scolding a puppy. "What did you do?"</p><p>Eda let out a soft chuckle as she made her way into the kitchen, still being followed ever so closely by Luz's prying eyes. She began to pour some water into a tea kettle as memories of her adventurous day flooded her brain. She placed the kettle on the stove and lit it up with the flick of her wrist. She leaned back against the counter and smiled at Luz, who had yet to break eye contact with her.</p><p>"You could say I was a little desperate to try and get the attention of one of the boys in my class, even though who wouldn't want a piece of this, am I right?" She winked and slapped her hip.</p><p>Luz only blinked in response.</p><p>"Anyway," Eda continued, figuring she wouldn't get anything out of her young protege yet, "I wanted to do something <em>amazing</em>; something <em>bold</em>; something which would set me apart from all the other young witches and prove that I was by far the best of them all. And there was only one thing that came to mind when I thought of that!" She raised her pointer finger up, emphasizing the last bit of her sentence.</p><p>Just as she was about to continue the kettle started whistling, prompting Eda to turn her head towards it. She grabbed a nearby mug and placed a tea bag in it, its string falling softly over the lip of the ceramic and laying flat against the outside. She poured the steaming hot water into the mug as the water vapor rose to her nose, filling it with the mild herbal scent of fresh tea. She placed the kettle on an unused burner and with her cup in both hands she turned back to Luz with a determined smile on her face and chaotic eyes to match.</p><p>"I had to break the school's drinking record!" She called out triumphantly.</p><p>"Oh no…" Luz muttered to herself.</p><p>"Yes, there were plenty of witches at Hexside who tried to conquer that mountain. Even my sister had a go at it. And let me tell you, I slept with a bucket at my bedside for a week after that." She chuckled out a snort. "Ah but anyway, it was a huge accomplishment to be the 'Queen of Blood' as we called it. You were basically turned into <em>the</em> most popular and influential witch at the school."</p><p>She stopped for a second to give her tea a little stir as steam continued to pour out of it.</p><p>Luz scrunched her face a little, the gears turning one by one in her head. "So…" She hesitantly started, "why was that such a big deal? I mean, back on Earth we had high school parties and stuff where people would drink a lot, but it really only mattered there. They were usually jocks so the popularity kinda stuck outside of it, but drinking didn't hold a ton on its own. Not like what you're saying at least."</p><p>"Honestly," Eda scratched her chin, "I have no idea." She shrugged. "It's always been highly commendable though! <em>So I </em>went for it!"</p><p>Eda's proud smile was infectious, and before she knew it, Luz found herself with a similar one plastered straight across her face. While her mentor was certainly less than a perfect upstanding citizen, to put it mildly, she did have an alluring way about her. Plus, Luz knew that under all those defensive spells and feathers was a huge heart and at the end of the day, wasn't that what really mattered?</p><p>"I could've also permanently taken out the competition, but there was too much planning to put into that." Eda waived the thought off. "Anyhoo, if there was one thing which was going to get me that date, it was being Queen of Blood. So naturally I grabbed the bottle closest onto me and started downing it. I put away bottle after bottle and before they knew it, I was tied with the past record holder: Odalia."</p><p>"Hold on!" Luz bounded to a perched position with her hands on the back of the couch, leaning in towards Eda. "You mean Odalia <em>Blight</em>? As in Amity's <em>mom</em>?" If there was one thing that was going to catch her attention, it was going to be mentioning the name Blight.</p><p>"That's the one!" Eda confirmed. "Although she wasn't technically a Blight back then. Still never saw that coming to be honest." She tapped her chin.</p><p>"Well what happened, Eda? You can't just leave me hanging like that!" Luz whined, her impatience getting the better of her.</p><p>"Well, as the master witch that I was, even back then, I had a plan. Usually that much apple blood would set you in the hospital for at least a few days if you were lucky, but thanks to my quick thinking and unrivaled conning skills, I was able to conjure up a dissemination spell without anyone noticing." Eda smiled proudly, taking a sip of her slightly cooler tea.</p><p>"What's that mean?"</p><p>"It means, for all intents and purposes, that I basically never drank any apple blood to begin with. It got all the toxins out of my system and I went on to double Odalia's previous record of most bottles drank."</p><p>"I still don't get how that stopped post-grom." Luz said, slumping down a little from her perch.</p><p>"Well let me finish. I was crafty enough to pull the spell off, but I still got to the same inebriated state I was in before. And after I officially claimed my new title, I immediately barfed all over Alador, who then barfed all over Odalia, aaand you can picture what happened from there." Eda nonchalantly waived her wrist in the air. "Needless to say the school didn't want to ever go through that again so they cancelled Post-Grom for good. Didn't even give us a chance by just taking out the apple blood. Bunch of jerks." She mumbled to herself, finishing off the last of her drink.</p><p>"Awe man…" Luz muttered, disgruntled at the lost prospect. "To think that grom could've been even <em>better</em> than it already was. We could've had so much more fun…" Her mind started to wander as a faint blush appeared on her cheeks.</p><p>"Psh. Yeah right." Eda waived her off, having just come back from putting her cup in the sink. "If anything, those stiffs would've stopped the liquid fun before it really got going. I tagged along with Lily the year before and they had a forty person game of grudgby going. Now <em>that</em> was a real post-grom."</p><p>"A real post-grom…" Luz parroted mindlessly, still lost in her own fantasy world.</p><p>"Hey." Eda said, placing a hand on Luz's shoulder. She quickly snapped her head to the witch's hand in response then looked up to meet her gaze. "We'll make it back. And when we do, we'll throw you and your friends a party that'll make post-grom look like a day at the library."</p><p>Luz smiled softly at her mentor. Under that calm, cool, collected, and anti-authoritarian exterior, truly was the heart of a wonderful witch. Her smile faltered a smidge when she finally processed all of what Eda had said.</p><p>"Wait. I like the library!"</p><p>"What's with all the yelling?" King's scratchy voice echoed from his small blanket cocoon which was perched perfectly in the center of the chair near the window, basking him in sunlight. "My mid morning nap was going perfectly until <em>you two</em> started <em>yelling</em>."</p><p>"Well since you're awake now, I think it's time for a change of scenery. We need to go into town for food and supplies. And maybe a little bit of info if we're lucky." Eda said.</p><p>King let out a long yawn with a small squeak at the end, eliciting an adoring awe from Luz. He did his best to ignore her, only side eyeing her for a few seconds. "Fine." He grumbled. "But I'm taking a nap in your hair on the way there!"</p><p>"I figured you would anyway." She snorted in retort.</p><p>Eda held out her hand towards the stairs as assorted sounds of metal and wood clashing and crashing from that direction grew louder and louder. In the blink of an eye her staff was snugly gripped in her hand. She gave it a quick twirl and stamped it on the ground. "Alright gang, let's roar on out of here!"</p><p>No sooner had she said that and Luz's stomach let out a loud, low pitched grumble. She quickly threw her hands in front of her stomach, clenching it tightly with an embarrassed blush to match. "My stomach agrees." She reluctantly smiled.</p><hr/><p>Nothing. Not a single ounce of sleep that night. Amity laid in her bed, utterly exhausted from her restless night of anxiety fueled insomnia. The last eight hours seemed like an eternity had passed as she just laid there, staring absently at her ceiling while a million different scenarios played out in her mind.</p><p>Some where Luz was captured and tortured by the Emperor's Coven to give up Eda's location, but she refuses to say anything so they just keep hammering her with fire, ice, thorns and every physical object they could get their hands on. Some where her and Eda were fighting off their oppressors, but make a small, lethal mistake. Some where they're both captured, put on trial, found guilty, and hung up as petrification statues for all of the Boiling Isles to see.</p><p>Then again, there were also the sparse thoughts of herself and Luz, out under the sun in a large grassy meadow with no one around. They would talk for hours on end about books, spells and their future plans, have a picnic lunch, and just enjoy each other's company.</p><p>A faint blush spread over Amity's cheeks as she clutched her hands over the bubbling feeling in her chest. But as soon as that came, her mind made a full U-turn, and she was back to thinking about the fate of her closest friend…</p><p>She shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of such malignant ideas. Luz said it herself in her note: Eda was with her. And there was nothing that badass witch couldn't fend off. Luz would be fine, Amity would just have to keep her anxious thoughts under control until she returned. She would only be hurting herself otherwise.</p><p>She glanced over to her alarm clock. 7 AM. Well, at least there was no school today and she could just be alone without any distractions. Just alone with her thoughts. Her unfiltered imagination…</p><p><em>Yeah, this won't work</em>. She thought to herself. With a yawn and a stretch she hoisted herself upright and swung her legs off the edge of the bed. The youngest Blight sibling slipped on her favorite pair of fur lined slitherbeast slippers and loosened her oversized black sleep shirt which was twisted a bit around her torso. Grabbing her scroll off her nightstand she shuffled out of her room and down the hallway. She made her descent on the stairs and faintly heard talking growing louder with each step she took.</p><p><em>Guess Ed and Em are up</em>. She sighed. Amity was hoping to have a peaceful morning without having to deal with the antics of her siblings for once. They could easily get on her nerves during a normal day, but sleep deprivation combined with copious amounts of stress weren't a recipe for anything but disaster.</p><p>She reached the bottom of the stairs and rounded the corner into the kitchen where her brother was sitting at the island hovering over a plate of something, while Emira had her back to the both of them frying up something on the stove. If she wasn't so dead set on limiting their interaction, she would have to say that whatever her sister was making smelled delicious.</p><p>"So then," Edric said through his bites "he woke up and started <em>freaking out</em> when he saw his own severed head staring right back at him!"</p><p>Emira giggled in response, shifting the contents of her pan around with a spatula. "That's like the oldest trick in the book. How did he fall for that one?"</p><p>"I have no idea! I honestly expected him to just kick me in the shin or something when he saw it." He took another bite of food. "Buh den, he figurt it out an chafed me all the way acrof the school." He finished and swallowed. "I was only able to lose him when Powers came out of his classroom, luckily right after I passed it, and pulled him right off the ground!"</p><p>"Oh my Titan. He really did that in front of everyone?" Emira asked, both stunned and impressed.</p><p>"Yep! Powers was pissed and Erwin looked like he was mentally decapitating me. Ah yeah, it was a good day." He smiled and leaned back in his chair, hands resting cooly behind his head.</p><p>Amity must have made some sort of noise because her brother's head cocked backwards towards her.</p><p>"Mittens!" He exclaimed. "You're awake! How's my favorite baby sister doing?" He ruffled her hair as she sat down in the chair beside him.</p><p>If only she knew what she wanted to eat, then at least she wouldn't have to put up with the physical annoyance before grabbing some grub.</p><p>"Fine." She muttered in response.</p><p>Edric raised an eyebrow. "You sure? Cause you look like death."</p><p>Emira took a quick glance back at her sister following their brother's astute assessment. He wasn't exactly wrong, she looked like she hadn't slept a wink. But something seemed off to Em; this wasn't the usual groggy Amity she knew. Those weren't just tired amber eyes; they held more weight today.</p><p>"Leave her alone, Ed. It's too early on a weekend for relentless teasing. Plus, don't you have to get ready for our tag team match today? You always take forever to get ready." She jaded, sliding her steaming hot breakfast onto a plate.</p><p>"Yeah, yeah. Just because I'm the one who likes to dress to impress doesn't mean that it takes me a week to get ready. But I do still have to find my mouth guard. I swear that thing hides from me on it's own…" He slid his plate onto a small stack of dirty dishes and bounded upstairs.</p><p>Amity crossed her arms on the table and rested her chin on top of them. She glanced down off the side of the table then back over to her sister who was staring right back at her, mouth full of food.</p><p>"Spill." Emira stated between bites.</p><p>Amity returned her gaze to the ground. "I don't know what you're talking about." She muttered.</p><p>The clink of Emira's fork on her plate was all Amity heard before her sister placed everything down, crossed her arms, and stared at her. Those eyes were drilling right through her skull even though she hadn't made any movement to look back at her older sister.</p><p>"Don't play stupid." Emira spoke once more, carrying the same blunt tone. "Spill."</p><p>Amity sighed. Em was always good with these sorts of things. Whether she liked it or not.</p><p>"Fine." Amity reluctantly agreed, pulling her head up and meeting her sisters gaze. "It's… It's about Luz…" She expected that to come out more confident. Apparently she couldn't even keep up her tough exterior regarding anything Luz.</p><p>"Yeah I figured that much. You only get emotional when it involves her. Now what's going on?" Emira's tone was softer now, trying to get her baby sister to open up so she could help.</p><p>The young Blight bit the inside of her bottom lip. She really did want to open up to someone; it was eating away at her from the inside out and she knew it would get worse every day that passed without a word from Luz. But on the other hand, her sister did have a reputation for running with her secrets and turning her life into a living hell.</p><p>"No, I won't use this as blackmail. I do have <em>some</em> standards, Mittens."</p><p>Amity looked up to Emira, scrunching her face. If she didn't know any better, she would have sworn her sister could read minds.</p><p>"<em>No</em>," Emira sighed "I can't read your mind. But your typically astute demeanor hasn't been as intact as usual." She walked over and took a seat next to Amity, spinning her just a bit to make eye contact. "Now please tell me what's wrong so I can go back to bugging you without this small twinge of guilt nagging at me." She cracked a small smile.</p><p>Amity ran her fingers through her mint locks and took a deep breath, mentally preparing to open up in case it comes to bite her. "Well… I've liked her for a long time now, but I've never really had the courage to make a move on it. I keep thinking <em>she only sees you as a friend</em> or <em>you're not good enough for her</em>. I want to tell her <em>so</em> badly but I don't want her to get weirded out by me liking her, and have her distance herself from me to the point where I never see her anymore. She's so perfect and I don't want to go a single day without being able to see or talk to her. I don't think I could live with myself if I lost that. And now she's off in the middle of Titan knows where, being hunted by the most powerful coven on the Boiling Isles. I might lose her forever, without even telling her how I feel, and there's nothing I can do about it!"</p><p><em>Yeah, that sounds about right. At least the not telling her part</em>. Emira thought to herself. It wasn't out of the ordinary for someone like Amity to feel like that. In fact, in that respect, they weren't terribly different from one another, save the fact that Amity knows her crush much better than Emira had when she asked out her current girlfriend.</p><p>"You know, Mittens," Amity looked up into her sister's eyes at the sound of her childhood nickname, "she <em>is</em> with Eda. One of the strongest witches alive. I'm sure that wherever she is, she's in very capable hands. You won't have to worry about them not coming back. But as for the other thing, believe it or not, I felt the same way before I asked out Viney. I mean, sure I'm an amazing illusionist; nobody can argue that. But even I felt inadequate compared to a dual track student. Especially one who was so good at both. And we were probably only friends for a couple months before I asked her."</p><p>Amity's attention refused to waiver as she anxiously awaited what her older sister had on her mind. Emira continued.</p><p>"My point is that no matter how sick in the stomach it makes you, sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and put yourself out there. When she gets back you'll probably clam up at the sight of her like you do every time you see her after more than like, 12 hours apart, but trust me when I say you'll come out of it better off than you were before."</p><p>Amity's face drooped a touch, unsure of whether or not to believe her sister. After all, she only had one girlfriend and she never saw any boys hanging around here either. Maybe she only asked out Viney and just got lucky. Herself, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky when it came to much of anything. She had to work hard for everything she had, and this wasn't something that hard work could help her with. Either Luz liked her or she didn't. There was no changing that. Once again Emira pulled her attention back.</p><p>"And let's be honest here, do you really think that Luz, happy go lucky, everything is amazing and wonderful, brings positivity and joy to even the darkest of witches, Luz, would ever turn you away for good, just for liking her? C'mon, sis. You'd have to kidnap and threaten all of her friends and Eda before she would ever stop talking to you. Hell, doesn't she still talk to Boscha? And <em>she</em> was a major asshole when she was younger. Titan I wish Ed and I terrified her more when she came over." She mumbled the last part.</p><p>"Wait, what?"</p><p>"Nothing!" Emira backtracked with a guilty smile plastered all over her face. "My point is that regardless of what you do, Luz will still like you. Whether that's as a friend or a girlfriend."</p><p>Ignoring her sibling's blatant psychological attacks on Boscha, which probably wasn't completely unwarranted, she had a point. She and Luz were inseparable, and that would carry through any trial they were put through. Even a hearty confession. But there was still that gnawing feeling in the back of her mind that something bad was going to happen to Luz and co. She had to figure out a way to find them, help them come home safe, and then lay out her feelings to promptly be trounced all over.</p><p>Hopefully only the first two though.</p><p>"You know, Em… I think you're right." Her sister smiled at the affirmation. "I still feel like I'm going to throw up at the fact that I'll be throwing myself out there, but I don't think I could be doing that to a more understanding and compassionate person. She's just so amazing and wonderful and kind, and <em>super cute</em> too, and-"</p><p>"Okay!" Emira promptly cut Amity off. "Keep talking like that and <em>I'm</em> going to be the one to throw up. Wow." She flicked her little sister's ear and smiled at her.</p><p>Amity pursed her lips together as a heavy red blush swept across her face. She grabbed the ear Emira flicked and softly rubbed it as her eyes darted between the table and the ground.</p><p>Emira giggled and lightly rubbed her sister's arm. "It's cute, Mittens. And honestly, I don't think you have anything to worry about. You can't have siblings that look like this," she gestured to herself, "and not be at least moderately attractive to like, <em>everyone</em>."</p><p>"Ugh. I can't believe this house can hold anyone on top of you, Ed and both your enormous egos." Amity sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.</p><p>"Hey, when you got it, you got it." She shrugged. "But seriously, I should probably get ready for the match too. Don't want Ed being obnoxious about finishing up first. <em>That</em> never ends well." She rolled her eyes. "You mind throwing my plate and fork into the sink?"</p><p>Amity rolled her eyes. Normally she would have pushed that request right back at her, considering it was such a simple task, but she really did get some good, nerve calming advice this morning. She figured it was the least she could do for her sister.</p><p>"Sure." She agreed.</p><p>"Thanks, sis." Emira smiled and got up from her seat. She ruffled Amity's already messy bed head into further disarray before heading upstairs to get ready herself.</p><p>That just left Amity alone with her thoughts. Or at least with her thoughts and the ability to mindlessly scroll through Penstagram on her, well, scroll. Some mind numbing was certainly welcome right about now.</p><p>The world of Pensta seemed so insignificant compared to what was actually going on around her. It was filled with witches and demons showing off their smiles, cute poses, beautiful scenery they found; just the typical, uninteresting stuff they seem to think everyone else likes.</p><p>That is, until one photo specifically caught her attention. Interestingly enough it was posted by Boscha about a day or so ago. It was a selfie of her outside somewhere with her back to the ocean captioned <em>Captain of the Banshees and the Seas</em>. Typical Boscha narcissism. But there was something else in this picture.</p><p>"What the-" Amity squinted and pulled her scroll closer to her eyes while simultaneously enlarging the image. She zoomed in on this small black and grey dot which was just above Boscha's head in front of the cloud cover.</p><p>With each magnification she saw a more defined image. The grey blob was attached to what looked like a person wearing red, and next to them was another person in darker clothes with, black hair? Maybe brown? It was hard to tell at this point seeing as there wasn't much clarity.</p><p>Could it be?</p><p>There was one more thing behind the darker outlined figure; a small black blob with a white head which came to a point at the one side.</p><p><em>That has to be them! </em>Amity's mind began racing a mile a minute, and her heart could barely keep pace. She kept looking around to get any more signs of confirmation but everything else seemed too blurry to use as conclusive evidence. But this was way too coincidental to write off as someone else flying off in the background. Boscha posted this around the time they would've left, give or take because of her meticulous editing, <em>and</em> there were three entities which were consistent with Luz, Eda and King's descriptions.</p><p>She needed to talk to Boscha ASAP. Although, she checked the time, 7:43 AM, the three eyed witch probably wasn't up. Amity still needed to change for the day anyway so she settled on a text to her at the moment, asking her to call her once she's up.</p><p>Amity stuffed her scroll back into her pocket and hopped off the stool, grabbing her sister's plate and putting it with the rest of the dirty dishes. She settled on a granola bar for breakfast before heading back up to her room to change. Her mind began to wander as she walked.</p><p>
  <em>If I can figure out where she was when she took the picture, I'll be able to get the direction they're flying in and maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to head in the same direction and hopefully find them. That'll take a lot of searching by myself though… I'll need some help.</em>
</p><p>With a search plan in mind, the young witch felt a new vigor wash over her. There were some things she needed to tell Luz, and finding her would also alleviate the bubbling fears about what might have happened to her. After all, no matter who you're with, when the strongest witch and his army of super powered goons are after you, you'll always be in danger.</p><hr/><p>"Now Lilith, I've given you plenty of time to bring back the Owl Lady, and yet, she remains free. I'm beginning to question where your loyalties may lie."</p><p>Emperor Belos sat high on his throne, propping his head up with his hand while crossing his one leg atop the other as he looked down on the leader of his coven kneeling before him. Above him a giant beating heart contracted and relaxed in a much slower fashion than Lilith's own. And even though she was not the one who technically raided Eda's home, she was still brought here for the failures of those under her, which was a whole other problem to start on in her mind.</p><p>"They lie nowhere but with you, Emperor Belos, and the great Emperor's Coven."</p><p>"Are you sure about that? Because the time I already gave you to capture Edalyn has been highly generous, and I have nothing to show for it." Belos straightened up and gripped the arm of his chair before easing slightly back.</p><p>Lilith gritted her teeth. While she had actually tried on multiple occasions to get Eda to willingly join her, she still fell short with each and every attempt. Now those failures were beginning to tear their ugly heads, and those heads looked just like Belos.</p><p>"I apologize for that, Emperor Belos. She once again eluded capture and has disappeared to an unknown location. We searched her home for any trace of her but she seemed to be very thorough in covering her tracks. We did, however, manage to apprehend her house demon and currently have him in for questioning. I am waiting for an update on that as we speak."</p><p>"I am aware. But one <em>small</em> victory in the face of countless defeats does not bring about a desirable end. That is why I am giving you 48 hours to find your sister and bring her to me. If you fail to do so, I will begin hunting her <em>myself</em>."</p><p><em>No</em>. Lilith's heart stopped. Thousands of ideas, predictions, and horrors ran through her mind, but they all kept coming back to one word: <em>No</em>.</p><p>Belos had only ever gone after one other witch personally during the time he was in power. And let's just say that she was unfortunate enough to be present when he had finally captured him, a whole two hours after he started. She could <em>not</em> let the same thing happen to her sister. She would never be able to live that kind of horror down. She needed to find Eda, before this, this <em>tyrant</em>-</p><p><em>That's new</em>. She thought to herself. "I understand, Emperor Belos. I will have her before you within that time."</p><p>He stared her down, the black abyss behind his mask holding no remorse for the fate of her sister if she were to fail in her mission. The cold, heavy atmosphere he ceaselessly exerted lifted slightly as he changed into the more slouched position he was in preceding their exchange. He simply waived his hand and Lilith made a small bow before returning to her feet and leaving through the large set of double doors which separated the throne room from the rest of the castle.</p><p><em>Hopefully she actually went to the summer home and that wasn't just some thought out diversion tactic</em>. Lilith ran her hands through her soft, smooth locks before summoning her staff. She jumped up onto the closest windowsill and tossed the staff out. She hopped onto it with both feet dangling off to one side. With a smack to the back of the stick she was off in a burst of wind, headed for the town of murder and mutiliation: Gastrow.</p><hr/><p>"Listen, man. I don't know if I can keep this up much longer. I mean, I thought this would be fun and all getting our revenge, and don't get me wrong, it was for a little, but I'm starting to lose my mind."</p><p>"Yeah, I know what you mean, Bellam… That- <em>bird tube,</em> has more resilience than I ever thought possible." Peckall whispered as to not further induce the aforementioned bird tube. They both glanced over to where Hooty was currently restrained.</p><p>The house owl had his door secured by five large reinforced steel girders barring the majority of the surface area. A circular solid steel plate covered his back while a dense mesh of thick intertwining barbs covered his face.</p><p>"Hey! What're you two talking about? I want to join in on the conversation! Is it about meeee? Cause I know a lot about me! If you wanted to know more I'd happily tell you! Nobody has <em>eeever </em>been <em>thiiis </em>interested in me before. Especially not to talk to me for a full day straight! I really love you guys. You should come over and hang out more! I don't think Eda would mind if I had-"</p><p>"He just keeps going!" Peckall yelled in a hushed whisper. "If I don't get out of here soon, I'm gonna lose it! <em>Lose it</em>!"</p><p>His partner threw his hands up defensively. "Woah, just, take it easy, man. We'll get out of here soon. It's not like Belos is going to keep only us down here to interrogate him."</p><p>Peckall ran his hands over his hood and took a step back. "Yeah…" He said distantly. "Yeah, you're right!"</p><p>"Of course I'm right!"</p><p>"Yeah! We'll probably only be in here for a few more hours, <em>at most</em>, before Emperor Belos sends some other guys to relieve us!" With this revelation, his entire mood began to shift for the better. "And we can finally get away from-" He carefully looked back over his shoulder, "<em>him</em>."</p><p>Hooty was simply twisting his head side to side as he sang an off key version of one of his favorite songs.</p><p>"Exactly!" Bellam exclaimed. "Now let's try and finish off this shift with some good news, because <em>we won't be coming back here for a while!</em>"</p><p>"You're darn tootin'!"</p><p>As they both turned around to their mental equal, another coven member came through the door holding a scroll wrapped with a crisp white ribbon. "These are orders from Emperor Belos." He handed Bellam the scroll and left in a hurry.</p><p>Bellam looked down at the parchment in his hand, just as his partner was doing. He pulled one of the free ends allowing its content to pop loose just slightly. With a quick tug the scroll unravelled, allowing them both ample viewing.</p><p>"Hey Bellam…" Peckall said tight lipped.</p><p>"Uh… Yes?" He responded hesitantly.</p><p>"Do you see what that says right there?" He pointed to the scroll.</p><p>"Yeah…" Bellam dejectedly answered.</p><p>"You remember how you were saying that we were going to be out of here in a few hours?"</p><p>"I remember…"</p><p>"Good... Cause now, <em>we can't leave</em>!" Peckall slapped the scroll up and out of Bellam's hands, startling him. Bellam flinched but continued to stand there staring emptily at where that accursed scroll used to be.</p><p>"Did you say you were staaaying?" Hooty asked from across the room. "Because it sounded like you said you can't leave, hoot hoot!"</p><p>"I may kill you before he cracks." Peckall gritted through his teeth.</p><p>"I know…" His partner dolefully responded.</p><p>"So what do you guys want to talk about first? The other day I saw this reeeally cool leaf on the porch, and it looked like this <em>other leaf I </em>saw a few days before that, and <em>that </em>leaf didn't look like a leaf, it looked more like a rock! <em>Aaand </em>I saw this rock that looked like a leaf, but it <em>wasn't </em>a leaf, it was a rock! Oh boy, you should have seen that, it was <em>amaaazing</em>…"</p><p>"AGH!"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. The Housekeeper</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So, it's been a while. Between school and writing a different Owl House story, it's almost like this one got neglected. But, that won't be the case anymore. And side note, it's the one year anniversary of this fic! So that's something.</p><p>Enjoy chapter 7!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>"So, kid, what do you think of the francach gloinithe?" Eda asked.</p><p>Eda, Luz and King had just made it into town when Luz's stomach decided to let out another loud, low pitched gurgle; one that Eda could not, and did not, miss. They found the nearest food vendor which was serving up what was allegedly identified as "The Best Francach In Gastrow." Eda said it was a local cuisine not much sought after outside of the city, and for good reason, though she had intentionally left out that part when telling Luz about it.</p><p>"It's actually pretty good!" Luz chirped between bites. At this point she was more than halfway through her skewered meal, quickly devouring her way through the second half. She took another bite and was happily chewing the mixture of flavors and textures similar to pollo guisado, a meal passed down by her great great grandmother, which her mom made on special occasions.</p><p>It was like a small piece of home; something she would happily take.</p><p>"Well I'm glad you like it!" Eda smiled, with King nodding along with her, consuming his own serving. "Not many witches take to glazed rat so easily. Guess it's more of a human thing." She gestured to Luz.</p><p>No sooner did the words leave Eda's lips before Luz had spat out the partially chewed chunks all over the ground in front of her. "<em>What!?</em>" She squeaked, before scraping at her tongue to rid her mouth of street vermin. She was used to some tastes that even humans would consider alien, considering the past few years she spent on the Boiling Isles, but she drew the line at things which scurry around like creepy little roombas, eager to take whatever scraps they can find.</p><p>Eda couldn't help but crack up at the distressed disaster of a girl beside her. It was times like these which really reminded her just how much fun she could have with Luz. That when it came down to it, this lowley human girl who managed to stumble her way into the nightmare called the Boiling Isles had also stumbled her way into her heart. And although Eda never really phrased it in such a way, she had hoped it came across well enough in her actions.</p><p>Like having Luz try a likely expired glazed rat on a stick.</p><p>"It's actually one of the best food choices you can get around here." King chimed in, completely ignoring Luz's futile mouth cleansing. He took another bite and continued to talk, mouth full of food. "Muth bether den duh insech shalad."</p><p>Her face dropped at the mention of such a stomach wrenching dish, which somehow sounded even worse than what she had just wolfed down. "Oh God. The <em>what</em> now?"</p><p>"One thing at a time, King. Sheesh, we may give her a heart attack, and I'm not ready to carry around a corpse like the rest of the low lives around here."</p><p>"Oh yeah, I thought you said this place was full of rough and tough killers? It seems pretty quaint to me." Luz pointed out, now having completely moved on from the rabies she likely ingested.</p><p>"There are many things I lie about. Mostly to steal from people I don't like, but not about that. Trust me, kid, you're gonna want to watch your back as we head in. Titan knows we'll probably get ambushed at some point"</p><p>It was the rare instance where both student and mentor were correct in their own regards. Eda, Luz and King were all currently on the outskirts of Gastrow, just barely within the limits of the city. It was similar to what they were used to in Bonesborough; the stands various witches and demons set up lined the large paths in a colorful, eye-catching array, the residents were clustered together yet scattered about the entirety of the strip buying, selling, and haggling various products, and the heavy musty haze combined with the city like brown sounds made this place feel like a home away from home.</p><p>That is, until they started to make their way towards the center of the city. With each passing step the ground became more uneven and the stands gained additional security spells which were at the ready, watching over the less dense crowds clumped in front of them. People started to become more closed off, covering themselves up to the point where nothing but an outer layer of cloth was visible. And it was getting easier to tell who was a witch since more and more people began having staffs out and at the ready. Even the air got thicker with the heavy sense of dread lingering like a thick fog, consuming everything in sight.</p><p>Eventually Luz found herself standing outside of a two story wooden building. It reminded her of the old saloons that sheriffs frequented to catch the outlaw in old western movies. There was a worn down awning covering a few rotting chairs thrown in every which direction on a small, creaky wooden floor. Half of the shudders were missing from windows next to the batwing door entrance, which in of itself looked like it was ready to keel over and die.</p><p>"What is this place?" Luz hesitantly asked, not really sure on whether she wanted to know the answer or not. Not was probably more accurate.</p><p>"This right here is called <em>Starless</em>. It's the one place that even the scum of Gastrow can come and enjoy a drink after their long day of ruining or ending lives." Eda looked down at Luz with a cold, unforgiving expression. A look that Luz knew was reserved for only the most dire of circumstances. That thought alone shook her to her very core, but it didn't even come close to the icy tone Eda continued with. "Do <em>not</em>, even for a second, leave my side. If you're as little as an arm's length away from me, someone could take you away and-" she paused, goosebumps raising on her arms ever so slightly, "just stay with me. Got it?"</p><p>Luz nodded fast enough to give herself whiplash. If this was serious enough to make even Eda run cold, she had no problem in adhering to her each and every command. "Got it."</p><p>"Arm's length." Eda repeated as she turned towards the door. Before she moved, King scampered up her leg and nestled himself within Eda's fluffy mane.</p><p>Eda shoved open the doors and walked inside, Luz riding her coattails like her life depended on it. Which, as Eda implied, it did.</p><p>The dim lights sporadically dotted above bar tables and booths made ambient lighting seem like stadium fluorescents. There was a heavy skunk like smog which burned the back of Luz's throat as it made its way down into her lungs, much to her own body's dismay. It took a hearty amount of willpower not to cough it out immediately, something which would probably make her and Eda more of a target than they already were for coming in here and disrupting the flow of the locals.</p><p>The same locals which stared Luz down as though she were being presented as the evening's main course. These witches and demons were ready to pounce her, and the only thing between their almost comically ripped physique and herself was the infamous Owl Lady.</p><p>With each stride she took, she could feel a new pair of eyes lay upon her. The large green lizard by what looked like pool table, the four armed demon with tattoos for days at the bar with his venous engourged hand grasped around a wooden stein, the small dwarven witch scratching at nothing on his onyx black staff, and the bright pink witch shoulder to shoulder with a large male witch, fiddling with some arrows.</p><p>Luz closed the gap between her and Eda a little more. It felt like an eternity in the unwanted spotlight, even though they only moved a couple yards from the entrance, but they finally reached the end of the bar. Eda subtly tapped one of the seats and Luz, a bit too eagerly, hopped up on the stool with her back facing the crowd.</p><p>Eda slammed the butt of her staff on the ground, eliciting a wave of neon yellow sparks from the bottom with an accompanying thunderous crash. All eyes that weren't on them before sure were now.</p><p>"Listen up you two faced, bottom feeding, low lifes! If I catch any of you eyeing up me or my companion here," she made a small gesture towards Luz, "your head's are gonna end up on a spear six feet above your icy corpse! Understand?" That authoritative tone reared it's wonderful head once more, quickly and efficiently silencing each and every creature around them.</p><p>A few murmurs began to pass between adjacent individuals. Luz caught bits and pieces a few of them were saying, like 'Owl Lady' and 'woods.' But within moments there was a distinct lack of eye contact, and the lump which had manifested itself in Luz's throat had eased off, if ever so slightly.</p><p>Satisfied with the results of her address, Eda pulled up the stool next to Luz and sat down facing the bar. She drummed her fingertips against the hard wood of the counter, little clicks popping with each point of contact as she surveyed the backdrop of booze.</p><p>Luz mimicked her mentor and sat quietly looking out at absolutely nothing. Her mind began to wander.</p><p>What was so important that they had to come into the center of one of the most dangerous cities on the Titan? Why would Eda bring her here if she was so concerned with the possibility of losing her to any thug off the street? And probably least important to their current situation, but still important to the ADD riddled mind of Luz Noceda, when could Eda teach her how to speak like <em>that</em>? It was horrifyingly amazing!</p><p>Her train of thought was derailed by the bartender coming up somewhat hesitantly towards them. "So, what can I get for you?" His cool demeanor was betrayed by the slight waiver in his voice that was just prominent enough to get noticed.</p><p>"I'll have a dirty duster. Aged gruff only." Eda ordered in a monotonous voice.</p><p>"All the aged bottles are in the back." The bartender answered.</p><p>"There's always one under the counter." Eda vollied back.</p><p>The bartender took a quick glance around the room before returning his gaze to Eda. "Follow me." He began walking twords a one person wide hall in the back of the bar. Luz could hear each squeaky floorboard under his thick black boots and couldn't tear her eyes away from the flickering independent light in the middle of the hallway. There was a good chance they would be murdered before they could make it even half way to wherever they were going.</p><p>Fortunately that never came. The bartender opened a ratty old door, stepping in before them.</p><p>"Arla! You have guests!" The man called out.</p><p><em>Who in the hell is Arla?</em> Luz questioned.</p><p>"She's right through the kitchen, in the living room." The man pointed a finger away from them. He met Luz's stare for a moment then went back to Eda. "Just, try not to startle her too much. She's much older now than when she worked for your family."</p><p>Eda nodded and the strange man left them be. Luz watched as he disappeared, rounding the corner at the end of the hall to go back to his occupational duties.</p><p>The clack of those foxy high heels against the aged floorboards were Luz's cue to follow Eda into the small apartment connected to the bar. If the stench of the bar made her feel queasy, this place had her pushing down chyme. And not with full success. They made their way through the kitchen which didn't even have enough space to hold them both simultaneously. They entered the small living room which had the square footage of Luz's bedroom. There were some navy blinds covering a window at the end of the room, a tattered dark green couch lining the wall closest to them, and a faded blue recliner, currently in use, pointed towards the room's far end.</p><p>There was a pulsing light coming from a crystal which was broadcasting the local news channel, something about a string of disappearances in a section of the city. Though Luz couldn't hear exactly what the reporter was saying over the ground shaking snoring which reverberated from the chair's occupant.</p><p>A couple steps forward and she saw a brown skinned woman who must have been at least in her eighties, knocked out and drooling onto her baby blue oversized lounging gown, complete with matching slippers.</p><p>"You'd think they're demolishing the building next to us." Eda snorted, jabbing Luz in the side with her elbow. "Hey Arla! It's Eda! Wake up!"</p><p>The loud outburst rattled Luz, but did absolutely nothing in the way of waking Arla from her deep slumber. "Maybe we should try poking her?" Luz asked, trying to peek around to see the woman's face without straying too far from Eda.</p><p>"Actually, I have a better idea." Eda cracked a mischievous grin. She drew a spell circle above herself and pulled it down to her toes, completely metamorphosing herself into dust which sprinkled all over the older woman.</p><p>Within seconds Arla snorted and jerked awake, rapidly panting as her eyes darted from one object to another until they focused on Luz. Their stare down was short, but intense enough for her to see the panic engulfing the older woman's pupils. Sweat dripped down from her temples, condensed on her lower jaw line, and fell onto her gown.</p><p>While they were locked in ocular combat neither noticed Eda manifest herself from the dust. She shuddered. "Wow, I don't think I can ever date anyone named Ricardo now." The not so subtle disgust hinged on her words, drawing the attention of the other two in the room.</p><p>"Oh my-" Arla adjusted her thick pink framed glasses which perched neatly atop her bulbous nose. She brushed a strand of black hair behind her ear. "Edalyn? Edalyn is that you?" Her heavily accented voice bolstering bewilderment.</p><p>Eda fanned her arms out slightly and smiled.</p><p>The old woman's breath hitched and Luz could have sworn she had seen a tear forming out of the corner of her eye.</p><p>Arla scrambled to get out of her chair, cursing at the recliner for not going down when she commanded it to. Finally the footrest dropped and she shuffled her way to Eda, wrapping her up tight with a warm embrace. Eda hesitated for a moment, clearly surprised by the gesture, but reciprocated it nonetheless. After all, Luz really had turned her on to that strange custom.</p><p>"Aye, you're so big and strong! Just look at how you've turned into such a powerful and beautiful woman. I always knew you would be one of the best. You always were a natural spell caster. I should know; I've always cleaned up yours and your sisters' messes." She ran her thumb across Eda's cheek, eliciting a smile slightly less in caliber compared to her own.</p><p>"It's great to see you too, Arla. And as much as I would like to catch up, I came here with a bit of an odd request."</p><p>"All business, huh? Well that's quite the change from the lawless, anti-authoritative young witch that I used to know." She replied with a chuckle. "But I'll answer anything I can for you."</p><p>Eda fidgeted with the inside of her jacket for just a moment before pausing and pulling her empty hand out. She scrunched her face and looked into the eyes of her family's old summertime housekeeper. "I need you to tell me everything you know about Emperor Belos."</p><p>Arla hummed to herself as she made her way back to the chair she had just been napping in. "Sit, please." She asked, waiving in the direction of the couch. Eda and Luz happily complied, sitting down basically on top of one another.</p><p>Arla took her glasses off and rubbed them clean with her top, slowly rocking herself back and forth with the ball of her foot. "I thought I'd be able to escape that name for good." She chuckled dryly. "I suppose I was sorely mistaken."</p><p>Luz eyed her intently. How in the world would she have known Emperor Belos on a level that other citizens wouldn't? Was she some kind of former coven leader who defected and managed to find a place to lie low in this armpit of a town? Or a spy who recorded and logged Belos' actions without him ever knowing? Or maybe even a former lover of his?</p><p><em>That</em> was a scary thought.</p><p>And even though it probably wasn't nearly as important as what Arla knew about Belos, because Luz knew that getting information on him was definitely what mattered most, she couldn't help but wonder what kind of ties this mysterious lady, whom she'd never heard of before today, had to Eda. Sure it was evident that she had cleaned for Eda's family, but to the extent that she would hug Eda? Probably not.</p><p>And how did this person know what a hug was anyway? Luz brought that here herself.</p><p>"Belos-" Arla began, a heavy sigh escaped her lips as the worn down facial features coating her skin became increasingly prominent. "Belos was always one to keep to himself." She said, her longing eyes fixated on the crystal ball which she had turned off. She pursed her lips together and turned back to face them. "I- I'm sorry, all the memories surrounding him are distorted. I know I knew him as a child, but I can't for the life of me remember where from. All I know are the feelings that pair with him, but nothing else is clear."</p><p>Eda shifted, drawing Luz's attention. Her expression changed then changed back quickly, too quickly for anyone who hasn't known her for years to pick up on, which is exactly what made Luz uncomfortable. Eda was upset, and not in a disappointed way. Apparently she <em>really </em>wanted some answers, and lack thereof was not an acceptable reply.</p><p>"Please." Eda pushed. "Is there anything, <em>anything</em> at all you can remember? Even the smallest detail could help me."</p><p>Arla frowned, continuing to slowly rock herself back and forth. Her face scrunched and softened as she remained silent, the only noise coming from the rocker itself.</p><p>Luz snuck a look back to Eda, something she felt like she should be avoiding for some reason. Like Eda would snap at her for simply looking away from the old housekeeper or breaking her focus. It wasn't something Luz was fond of, and the sooner they could get out of this awkward place, the better. Unfortunately, the power to make that happen currently laid outside of her reach, so for now she just bared the awkward storm she was trapped in and hoped it would all be over soon.</p><p>"Well dear, for some reason all I can remember is inexplicable fear and a deep, heart wrenching sadness." Arla said in almost a whisper, after about a minute of contemplation. "I feel like I was at the home too when I felt that, but I can't recall when it was or what I was doing. Maybe it was something about him finally securing the throne? That's all I can think of anyway."</p><p>Eda let out a long, exasperated sigh. She knew this was a shot in the dark at best, but there was one more chance to get something more worthwhile than just <em>feelings</em>. She reached into her inner pocket once again and this time pulled out a folded piece of paper. The same one she had found last night alongside the Apple blood. She opened it up and showed Arla, pointing to the young boy in the center. "Do you know who this is?" Eda asked.</p><p>Arla's eyes went wide. Wider than what should have been considered humanly possible. She began to hyperventilate, pushing herself back up against the chair she was just preciously sitting comfortably in. The fear of the Titan had been been instilled within her, and if the amount of sweat beading off of her was any indication, she was about to shrivel up and die on the spot.</p><p>Luz made a quick move and slapped Eda's hand down, making her release the picture from her grasp, which landed on the ground face up. Luz reached down to grab it when all of a sudden something caught her eye as well, just not in an anxiety attack invoking way.</p><p>She reached down for the picture and slowly pulled it up to look at it. There was a familiar face on here. Two, actually. The one girl on the end looked like a young red headed version of Lilith, and the one on the other end was unmistakably Eda. Though, she had no idea who the small boy between them was.</p><p>"Give me that!" Eda snatched the picture from Luz, folding it up and placing it safely back where she produced it from. Essentially ignoring Luz, Eda returned her focus to the retired housekeeper who was now on the verge of tears. Or she may have already been crying. It was hard to tell with the full body sweating.</p><p>"Stay <em>away</em> from that child!" Arla bellowed. The sudden outburst took both Eda and Luz by surprise, making them take a step back. "He's nothing but a <em>monster</em>! Keep him away from me! Get out! <em>Get out!</em>" Arla had ripped into hysterics at this point, not once breaking eye contact from where Eda had stored the photo. She started throwing the closest objects she could find at the two of them; books, remotes, and even the crystal ball. "<em>Out!</em>" She screamed, hot tears streaming down her cheeks.</p><p>Dodging the incoming projectiles, Luz and Eda made a beeline towards the way they came in, slamming the door behind them.</p><p>With an unspoken agreement, they both hauled ass away from the small apartment, only to be stopped by the bartender before they could round the corner into the main area.</p><p>"Woah, hey. What's going on here?" He held his hands up to stop them.</p><p>"Nothing!" Luz answered a little too quickly and definitely too loudly. She could have kicked herself for that failure of discretion.</p><p>The man obviously was not going to take her poorly executed response for face value, and instead flicked his eyes to Eda, waiting for a different answer.</p><p>Moments later he got it in the form of an outcry from the screaming old woman behind door number one.</p><p>"What did you do to her?!" He asked more as a threat than genuine curiosity. Not that they could blame him. This whole situation looked pretty bad, seeing as they just came from being alone with Arla.</p><p>"<em>Well</em>, funny story…" Eda had no intention to even try making up an excuse, and instead opted to shove the man aside. And having picked up a few things from her mentor about escaping a sticky situation, Luz stuck her foot out behind the bartender, sending him toppling backwards against the wall. His head gave off a loud crack on contact.</p><p>The man seethed in pain, rubbing the back of his head. Before Eda and Luz could even get a few steps away from him, he got his bearings and shouted.</p><p>"<em>Get them!</em>"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So if you've taken notice from the previous chapters, this one is a little shorter than the last. I don't exactly love it, but for the time being I would rather put out some shorter chapters than wait three times as long to post a single one. Either way, I hope you all enjoyed the latest installment!</p><p>=G</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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